As the dark sphere of heaven rotated above the shadowed mountains, Queen Sudabeh sat radiantly upon her throne, donning a crown encrusted with rubies and fine gold. She adorned her harem like a terrestrial paradise filled with silver-bodied maidens, dispatching the chief eunuch to invite the noble Siyavash. The pristine prince entered gracefully, seating himself upon a golden throne. Sudabeh stood before him, her locks and face gleaming with jewels, displaying her finest maidens to entice the youth.
Yet Siyavash, guided by a chaste heart and immaculate wisdom, refused to fall into the snare of demonic temptation. Remembering the ancient betrayals of the house of Hamavaran and holding steadfast allegiance to his royal father Kay Kavus, he sought only to take Sudabeh's young daughter as his lawful bride. Realizing her desperate advances were thwarted, Sudabeh dropped all pretenses. In a surge of vengeful rage, she tore her royal garments, lacerated her cheeks with her nails, and raised a frantic uproar across the palace, accusing Siyavash of attempting to force himself upon her.
King Kay Kavus hurried to the harem, finding Sudabeh weeping bitterly with a scratched face. Seeking truth, the monarch embraced Siyavash and smelled his garments, inhaling only the pure scent of rosewater, whereas Sudabeh reeked of strong wine and heavy musk. Kavus recognized his son's innocence, yet bound by political dread of the King of Hamavaran and his lingering infatuation with Sudabeh, he stayed his blade. Fearing disgraced banishment, Sudabeh turned to wicked sorcery: she bribed a pregnant witch to ingest a vile potion and abort twin monstrous fetuses onto a golden basin, claiming they were Kavus's unborn children murdered by Siyavash's violent assault.
Sorrowful and bewildered, Kavus summoned the grand Mobads and astrologers. Consulting their astrolabes for seven days, the astronomers proclaimed that the dead infants were neither of royal blood nor of the King's seed, but the horrific spawns of a sorceress. Yet, as doubts lingered and Sudabeh's cries filled the palace, the wise counselors advised the ancient ordeal by fire—the infallible judgment where divine light protects the innocent.
Kavus commanded a hundred caravans of camels to haul firewood from the plains, constructing two towering mountains of timber separated by a narrow passage. Black naphtha was poured over the pyres, and two hundred fire-kindlers ignited a blaze so ferocious that the sky turned pitch-black with smoke before igniting into blinding, roaring flames that scorched the desert for leagues.
Prince Siyavash approached his father wearing a golden helmet and clad in immaculate white robes. Fearless and smiling, he mounted his black steed Shabrang Behzad, offering a prayer to the Almighty. Placing his trust in Yazdan, he spurred his horse directly into the blazing furnace of fire. The gathered throngs wept and covered their eyes in terror, while Sudabeh watched eagerly from her high balcony. Suddenly, a thunderous roar of jubilation shattered the sky: Siyavash emerged unscathed from the fire mountain, his white robes unblemished and his steed invigorated, as though he had ridden through a meadow of jasmine. The army showered coins upon his path, and Kavus wept with joy, embracing his blameless son.
Enraged by the queen's monstrosity, King Kavus commanded that Sudabeh be publicly hanged. But the noble Siyavash interceded, begging his father to spare her life so that Kavus would not suffer future remorse. The King pardoned her, yet Sudabeh's heart remained filled with venom and black sorcery, paving the tragical road ahead for the pure prince.