The ancient sage recounts that within the shadowed quarters of Zal's citadel, a songstress slave-girl bore a son whose face shone with the radiance of the moon, bearing the heroic stature of Sam the Rider. Though the noble house rejoiced, Zal summoned the elite astrologers and stargazers of Kashmir and Kabul to consult their ancient Roman astrolabes and divine the child's destiny. As the star-readers examined the heavens, astonishment and dread seized them; they revealed to Zal that when this fair-faced child reached warriorhood, he would bring total devastation upon the lineage of Sam, casting Seistan and all Iran into turmoil and ending his own days soon thereafter. Heart-stricken, Zal turned to Yazdan, the Supreme Guide, committing his lineage to Divine Providence, and named the boy Shaghad.
As Shaghad grew into a towering, mace-wielding youth, Zal sent him to the court of the King of Kabul. The ruler of Kabul welcomed him and gave him his own daughter in marriage. Yet a dangerous ambition took root in Kabul; historically, the realm paid an annual tribute of a bull's hide to Rostam, and the King of Kabul foolishly assumed that Rostam would waive the tax now that Shaghad was his son-in-law. When Rostam's collectors exacted the tribute as usual, the Kabuli king was outraged, and Shaghad felt deeply humiliated by his brother's unyielding demand. Driven by malice, Shaghad forged a dark conspiracy with his father-in-law.
They devised a treacherous stratagem: the King of Kabul would hold a grand feast where he and Shaghad would stage a fierce public argument over lineage and honour. Shaghad would then depart in feigned outrage for Zabulistan to complain to Zal and Rostam of the Kabuli king's insolence. Meanwhile, the King of Kabul would dig dozens of deep pits in a favored hunting ground, line their bottoms with upright, razor-sharp blades, spears, and scimitars, and conceal them subtly. Once Rostam arrived in anger, Shaghad would lure him into the hunting field. The plot unfolded flawlessly; Shaghad returned to Zabul, enflamed Rostam's pride, and persuaded the invincible champion to leave his grand army behind, riding toward Kabul with only his brother Zavareh and a tiny retinue, unaware of the fatal trap awaiting him.