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Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): Seventh night: The darwish brings in as dowry an elephant laden with gold, c. 1560. The eccentric dervish, wearing a fur cap, a leopard-skin skirt, and chains around his neck, chest, and legs, comes to the king with the very thing the king thought he could never provide: an elephant laden with gold in exchange for the princess’s hand in marriage. The dervish had gone to the magnanimous King of Kings—the overlord of this local king—with his plight: in order to marry the princess, he had to provide an elephant laden with gold as a dowry. The King of Kings, who could not resist a good love story, provided it for him. The text of the story is written in Persian in a naskh script, which is read from right to left.