When the world lay completely subdued under the sway of King Kay Kavus, Ahriman gathered his sinister demons in a secret council. Mourning that the Iranian king held total mastery over the realm, the Evil One sought a fiend who could tarnish the King's Royal Glory and lead his mind astray. A venomous and cunning demon stepped forward, taking the form of an eloquent, radiant youth. Waiting until Kavus went forth to hunt, the disguised fiend kissed the earth before him, offered a bouquet of fresh blossoms, and whispered flatteries into his ear: 'O Great Monarch, the earth and all its creatures are already your flock; only the mysteries of the rotating heavens remain hidden from you. Why should you not ascend and rule over the sun, moon, and stars?'
The demon's poison took root in the king's heart, eclipsing his intellect with towering arrogance. Kavus foolishly believed that the celestial spheres were his to command, failing to remember that the stars are infinite and God alone is the Almighty Ruler of the cosmos. Obsessed with soaring through the air without wings, he summoned astronomers to calculate the distance from the earth to the sphere of the moon, devised a absurd scheme, and ordered his hunters to raid eagles' nests. Eaglets were taken and nurtured in royal enclosures on choice meats until they grew as fierce and strong as wild lions.
Kavus then caused a magnificent throne to be fashioned from Qamari aloe wood, reinforced with pure gold fittings. Long wooden spears were attached to its four flanks, and juicy legs of lamb were hung at the ends of the spears just out of reach. Four ravenous, mighty eagles were securely harnessed to the structure. Settling himself upon the throne, Kavus triggered the birds' frenzy; driven by hunger, the eagles flapped their powerful wings toward the suspended meat, lifting the king's throne off the ground and bearing it high above the clouds.
As the throne rose toward the heavens, legend tells that Kavus sought to unravel the secrets of the angels or wage war against the stars with bow and arrow. But greed brings only swift ruin. Soon, the immense strain broke the eagles' strength; soaked in sweat and trembling with exhaustion, the birds collapsed. The golden throne plunged downward out of the dark clouds, crashing violently into the dense wilderness of Amol, known as the Shirchin Forest.
By divine decree, Kavus survived the catastrophic fall unharmed, for Destiny had ordained that the noble Prince Siyavash must yet spring from his lineage. Yet the proud king was stripped of his splendor, left bruised, humiliated, and stranded in the lonely forest. Realizing the folly of his hubris, King Kay Kavus wept bitter tears of remorse and fell upon his knees in weeping prayer to the Almighty Creator.