By divine grace, fate took a compassionate turn for young Bizhan, shattering the ominous dark design cast upon him. As the executioners cleared the ground to erect the high gallows tree and secure the binding rope, Piran-e Veyse, the noble Turanian elder, appeared from afar. Seeing the heavily armed Turanian ranks and the high gallows, Piran halted his steed and inquired whose blood was to stain the earth. Garsivaz stepped forward, announcing that the bound captive was Bizhan—the bitter Iranian enemy who had brought disgrace upon King Afrasiab.
Piran rode closer to the youth. Seeing Bizhan stripped, wounded in heart, his lips parched and his face drained of color with his hands bound behind him like stone, Piran wept. He listened to Bizhan's tragic account of how misfortune had ensnared him. Filled with pity, Piran immediately commanded the guards to pause the execution, promising to seek an audience with the King to show him the righteous path indicated by the stars.
Piran hastened to the royal court, crossing his arms reverently before Afrasiab's throne and bestowing high praise upon the monarch. Afrasiab greeted his most trusted advisor with laughter, offering him gold, jewels, or rulership over any realm he desired. But Piran bowed, kissed the ground, and declared that his request was neither for wealth nor land, for no servant of the King lacked riches. Instead, he raised his voice to offer stern counsel.
He reminded Afrasiab of past foolishness, notably the murder of Prince Siyavash, which had brought devastating war upon Turan, trampling two-thirds of their people beneath Iranian hooves. "The sword of Zal's line has not yet rested in its scabbard!" Piran warned. "Rostam still shakes his head with fury, dripping blood upon the sun! If you shed Bizhan's blood now, a terrible fire of vengeance will rise once more. You know full well the wrath of Gev, the iron-clawed Gudarz, and Rostam the dragon of calamity!"
Piran's wise council poured water over Afrasiab's fiery rage. Though the King bemoaned the eternal shame brought upon his royal line by his reckless daughter Manizheh, he conceded to Piran's wisdom. He ordered Garsivaz to commute the death sentence to severe imprisonment: Bizhan was to be bound from head to toe in heavy iron chains, cast upside down into a deep, pitch-black pit, and the mouth of the pit was to be sealed with the legendary, massive stone of Akvan Div.
Furthermore, Afrasiab commanded that Manizheh be stripped of her royal robes, her treasures looted, and she be cast out bareheaded and barefoot into the wilderness beside the pit. Devastated and weeping tears of blood, Manizheh wandered the outskirts by day begging for crusts of bread, which she dropped through the small opening of the stone to keep her imprisoned lover alive.