The narrative opens with profound wisdom: when fate closes in, caution alone cannot avert destiny, yet valor must ever be paired with wisdom. Rostam the Elephant-Bodied hosted a magnificent feast in the realm of Navand, where the sacred flames of Azar Burzin radiated their guiding light. The illustrious chieftains of Iran assembled: Tus, Gudarz, Bahram, Giv, Gorgin, Zangeh-ye Shavaran, Gostahm, Khorad, Barzin, and the formidable Gorazeh, each leading a proud warlike retinue.
Days were spent in polo, archery, and golden revelry until, flushed with wine, Giv proposed a daring hunt in the private hunting grounds of King Afrasiab of Turan, near the River Shahd and the deserts of Sarakhs. Rostam embraced the challenge, and at dawn, the seven legendary champions rode across the border with falcons, hawks, and hunting leopards. For a full week, they hunted relentlessly, covering the Turanian steppes with slain wild asses and gazelles while enjoying endless feast and song.
On the eighth morning, the vigilant Rostam cautioned his comrades that news of their bold intrusion had surely reached Afrasiab, who would certainly march to trap them. He posted Gorazeh as an armed scout along the border road. Indeed, under the cover of night, word reached Afrasiab. Astonished and enraged by the audacity of the seven Iranian heroes, the Turanian king gathered his veterans and dispatched thirty thousand elite cavalry to launch a surprise attack.
When Gorazeh beheld the horizon black with dust and the sun-bright banner of Afrasiab, he galloped back like a swift wind to warn Rostam, who was merrily drinking wine. Yet Rostam merely laughed with thunderous disdain, declaring that seven Iranian lions were more than a match for tens of thousands of Turanian horsemen. Unshaken by the approaching tempest, the mighty champion raised a goblet of sweet Babylonian wine, toasting first King Kay Kavus, then kissing the earth in honor of Tus and his valiant brother Zovareh, turning imminent war into a triumph of unyielding fortitude.