There was once a wealthy man who was into the equine business. One day, he brought a new horse into his stables.

Like him, his daughter shared his love of horses. She went down to the stables to see the new horse. While she was petting him, the horse put one of his hooves on her foot and refused to remove it. The girl tried to coax him into moving, then used force and even called all the stable boys and servants but no one could make the horse budge.

When the girl’s father saw this, he asked everyone to leave until only his daughter and the horse were left.

It was a time when jinns and shape-shifters were common and roamed freely.

The father said to the horse, “Whatever you are, reveal your true self. I will give you whatever you ask for, if you set my daughter’s foot free.”

The horse changed into his real form. He was Laal Badshah, the prince of the fairy people and he demanded the girl. The man had not expected him to ask for his daughter. He told him that this was too much, but the prince would not let the girl go. The man then argued that his daughter was a human and the prince was a fairy who lived in a different world, but the prince would not listen and insisted that the man give him his daughter.

The father could not convince the prince otherwise but to set his daughter free, he let him take her.

The prince took great care of the girl. He built her palaces that swarmed with servants and they lived very happily.

There were people who got very jealous of her wealth and happiness. They scattered broken glass bangles in Laal Badshah’s bed. Later that night, when he lay down to sleep, the glass wounded his back. Being from the land of fairies, he could find nothing in the human world to soothe his pain or heal his wounds. He put a pail of water on the ground. Then he stood in it and chanting some magic words, he slowly disappeared into it.

The girl waited a long time for him to return. She waited and waited but the prince did not come back. Getting anxious, she also stepped into the same pail of water and repeated the magic words as closely as she could remember.

She began to slowly melt into the water. As she went under the surface of the water, she came out from below into a different world. She found herself sitting on a riverbank. All about her, women were rushing to fill their clay pots with water and rushing back. When she asked them where they were going, they said that Laal Badshah has wounded his back and we’re taking cold water for him to soothe his pain.

There were some birds sitting in a tree near the girl. She heard them say that the only thing that would heal Laal Badshah’s wounds is a mixture of their droppings. The girl asked one of the women to give her one of their clay pots to carry. When the other women weren’t looking, she put her ring, which Laal Badshah had given her, into the pot and gave it back. She couldn’t go inside the royal castle but when Laal badshah saw her ring in the pot, he understood that his wife was here.

Every day, someone went to the castle to try to cure the prince’s wounds but remained unsuccessful. Whoever gave up trying to heal was executed.

The girl remembered what the birds had said. The next day, she went in with the mixture of bird droppings to put on the prince’s wounds. The mixture worked and the wounds of Laal Badshah disappeared.

His mother, the queen, was so happy that she told the girl that she could make any wish and the queen would grant it.

The girl asked for Laal Badshah.

The queen was taken aback. She did not want to give the girl her son but she could not go back on her word either. She came up with a plan. She told the girl to go to her sister’s house to give her the news of Laal Badshah’s health and to invite her to a banquet in his honor. The queen handed the girl a letter to give to her sister. What the girl did not know was that the letter was not really an invite; it carried orders to the queen’s sister to kill the girl.

On the way to deliver the letter, she met Laal Badshah. She told him how she was going to his aunt’s house to invite her to the banquet but he knew that his aunt was a cruel woman who carried out murders for the queen. He could not stop the queen’s order from being carried out, but he told the girl to listen carefully to what he had to say. He said, “When you find open doors, you should close them, and where the doors are closed, you should open them. Secondly, there will be a dog with hay in its bowl that you should pick up and give to the donkey, and the donkey will have bones in its bowl that you should pick up and give to the dog.”

The girl did not understand but promised to do so. When she reached the queen’s sister’s house, she gave her the letter. The queen’s sister read the letter and invited the girl in. She said, “I’m an old woman, I can no longer dress myself to the banquet. Will you please wash my hair for me, oil it and tie it in braids?”

The girl agreed to do so. She went in, washed her hair for her, oiled it and began to braid it into tiny braids. She was a clever girl and had sensed that something was wrong. To protect herself, she tied each braid that she made to the old woman’s bed.

When she was done, the queen’s sister got up to attack her but she got up quickly and ran. The old woman’s head was tied to the bed. While she was freeing herself, the girl ran and did as the prince had told her. She unlocked doors that were closed and locked doors that were open. Then she went and gave hay to the donkey and bones to the dog.

By then, the queen’s sister had freed herself. The girl began to run outside. The old woman ordered the dog to attack her but the dog said, “You gave me hay and she gave me bones. We will not attack her.”

The old woman then ordered the donkey to go and kick the girl down but it said, “You gave me bones and she gave me hay. We will not kick her.”

Then, as the girl ran, whenever the queen’s sister thought the doors would be closed, they turned out to be open and where she thought the doors were open, they had been closed. In the old woman’s confusion, the girl escaped her house and ran back to Laal Badshah’s house.

When the queen saw her, she stared at her in shock, wondering how she had escaped from her sister. Having given her word, she then arranged a grand wedding. She lit candles in the palm of her hands and watched as the dripping hot wax burnt her. In great pain but unable to say anything, she girl silently suffered.

At last, the prince transformed himself into a giant bird and flapped his wings to blow out the candles. He then lifted the girl in his claws and they both flew away over the horizon to live happily together.