For a full month, King Khosrow Anushirvan entertained the foreign envoys with lavish banquets and grand royal hunts. Thereafter, he ordered a magnificent pavilion to be pitched upon a vast plain. So dense was the gathering of armored cavalry that the sky darkened with the dust of their hooves. Golden-belted marchlords from every frontier, fierce Baloch warriors, and Gilani champions bearing shields wrought with gold assembled before the sovereign. Three hundred war elephants arrayed in golden trappings were brought forward, their backs adorned with fine silks and turquoise thrones blue as the Nile. The gleam of swords, javelins, and lances created a dazzling spectacle, as though gold itself had been fused into solid iron, while the thunder of war drums and trumpets deafened even the sharpest ears.
Emissaries from Barda'a, India, Rome, and every realm of the inhabited earth stood assembled. Anushirvan showed the ambassador of Cathay the true stature of Iranian kingship, proving whose mandate extended from the high sun to the depths of the ocean. Warlike horsemen galloped into the arena, displaying extraordinary mastery with mace, sword, bow, and javelin, while infantry and cavalry executed flawless tactical maneuvers. Yet, as the foreign envoys marveled at the sheer scale of the host and its flawless discipline, they whispered among themselves that while the army's drills were formidable, they longed to behold the personal martial prowess of King Nushinravan himself, so that they might carry word of his legendary strength back to their own monarchs.
When these whispered words reached the King's ear, he summoned his treasurer to bring forth his personal battle gear onto the field. Armor, coat of mail, helmet, and heavy mace were brought out and unpacked—gear so colossal that not a single champion in the entire army could even lift the mail coat off the ground, for none possessed the shoulder and neck strength to bear it save the King. Mounting his swift warhorse like a furious elephant, Anushirvan grasped his bull-headed mace. As trumpets sounded and elephant bells rang, the Shahanshah charged across the arena, wheeling left and right with consummate grace and terrifying power. Stunned by this display of peerless strength and supreme horsemanship, the foreign envoys broke into unanimous praise and bowed their heads to the earth in absolute reverence.