Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book (1904),[1] with the note "Translated from two Persian MSS.
in the possession of the British Museum and the India Office, and adapted, with some reservations, by Annette S.
[5] Professor Mahomed-Nuri Osmanovich Osmanov [ru] translated the word "Gul" as 'rose, flower', and "Sanaubar" as 'cypress'.
[6] The tale is described as having "Hindustani" origin,[7] and scholar Christine Goldberg, in her book Turandot's Sisters, indicated that it belongs to a literary tradition that migrated to Europe in the Middle Ages.
The oldest went hunting and chased a deer, giving orders that it should be captured rather than killed.
Finally the third went, but having reached the city, he saw his brothers' heads and went to a nearby village, where he took shelter with an ancient, childless couple.
He answered her questions at random, convincing her that he was mad, but his beauty made her protect him as her own.
Dil-aram, who had seen him first, grew fond of him and begged him to tell her what he was about; finally, he was convinced she was in love with him, told her his story, and promised to marry her and keep her among his favorites.
She turned him back, gave him a bow and arrows, a sword, and a dagger, that had all belonged to heroes, and told him that he must seek out the home of the Simurgh, but she could not direct him to it.
He obeyed her directions about the Place of Gifts, where wild animals lived, and a lion-king gave him some hairs, saying he must burn them for aid.
At the city, he demanded the African whom the princess hid beneath her throne to confirm the truth of his words.
[18][19][20] In a Georgian variant, Gulambara and Sulambara, after a prince is banished by his father and meets a mysterious yet helpful boy in his wanderings, both reach a city.
One day, the prince goes out and sees a tower with a row of spiked heads nearby.
[21] The tale of a princess who challenges her suitors with deadly riddles is similar to the story of Turandot.
[22] The heroic prince helping the mythical creature and it repaying the favour is a motif that echoes the Roman fable of Androcles and the Lion.
[23] Angelo de Gubernatis analysed the motif of the rose and the cypress of the story, postulating that the cypress is a phallic symbol or representative of the male prince, and the rose the symbol of the female beloved.