Once there was a sultan who had no children. His wife prayed and said, If I have a child I will make rivers of honey and butter flow from the palace. After a time the wife conceived and gave birth to a baby boy who was named Hussein.

Hussein grew up and began to go to school. One day on his return from school he met an old woman who said, Hussein, go tell your mother to do what she promised to do. But Hussein forgot the old woman when he reached the palace. The next day he met the same old woman who said, Hussein, go tell your mother to do what she promised to do. Again Hussein forgot. On the third day the old woman met Hussein and she was very angry and she shouted and said,
Hussein, go tell your mother to do what she promised to do.

This time Hussein remembered and he went to his mother and said, I met an old woman in the street who said, Go tell your mother to do what she promised to do.

The wife of the sultan remembered her promise and went to the Sultan and told him about her vow. Tomorrow, he said, you must fulfill your vow. And he sent a crier through the city saying, Whoever wants butter and honey, let him come to the palace and take it. Whoever wants butter and honey, let him come to the palace and take it.

The next morning there were crowds of people at the palace, some with pots, some with basins, some with jars, some with pitchers, some with bowls, some with wash tubs, with anything that they possessed in which they could put honey and butter. Hussein was looking out of a window of the palace and he saw the old woman coming with only one small earthenware jar in her hands. Hussein idly took up a stone and threw it at the old woman. It hit the jar and broke it. Then the old woman looked up and saw Hussein. She shook her fist at him and screamed. I wish you to fall in love with the daughter of Mirjan. Yes, with Lilwa, the daughter of Mirjan.

At once Hussein turned from the window and went to his mother to ask, Who is Lilwa, the daughter of Mirjan?

O my Son, said his mother, what have you to do with Lilwa. The daughter of the wicked magician, Mirjan?

I must go and find her, answered Hussein. Although his mother begged and wept, Hussein was determined to go and find Lilwa, so after a time his mother helped him pack a few things. Then Hussein went to say good-bye to his father. He said, I must go to find Lilwa, daughter of Mirjan. Then he rode away on his horse.

One foot up and one foot down, he rode across the earth, always asking, Where is Lilwa, the daughter of Mirjan? One day he met an old woman in the middle of a desert and he asked her, Where is Lilwa, the daughter of Mirjan?

She answered. Keep on until you come to the foot of a glass mountain. She lives in a palace on top of the glass mountain.

So Hussein rode on and on until he came to the foot of a glass mountain. He saw a castle at the top of the mountain, but he could not climb the mountain. He sat at the foot of the mountain and began to sing:

Here is Hussein,
Sitting in pain,
Let down your hair
To raise me again.
Here is Hussein,
Sitting in pain,
Let down your hair
To raise me again.

Lilwa looked out of the window and saw Hussein. At once she fell in love with him. She let down her long golden hair, and Hussein climbed up to her window. When he entered her room Lilwa said, O Hussein, why have you come? My father is a wicked magician and he will surely kill you.

Then let us run away together, answered Hussein.

Lilwa picked up a twig from a thorn bush, a bit of black char¬coal, and a piece of an old broken water jar. These things she tied up quickly in her scarf. Then she gathered everything in the room and set fire to them. After that, Lilwa and Hussein went out of the palace, got on the horse and rode away.

When Mirjan, the wicked magician returned to the palace he called, Lilwa. No answer. Lilwa, he called louder. No answer. Lilwa, he shouted angrily.

Then an old sieve lying forgotten behind the door called out, Lilwa ran away with Hussein, the son of the sultan.

The magician was furious. He called to his hunting hounds, and shouted, Follow them. And he got on his horse and rode after the hounds.

The dogs ran and ran until they came within sight of Lilwa and Hussein. When Lilwa saw them she threw the twig of thorn behind her and and the land became covered with thick thorns and bushes. Although the dogs were tom by the thorns, still they pushed their way through the thorns and bushes and then they ran on faster than ever until they once more came within sight of Lilwa and Hussein.

Then Lilwa threw the bit of charcoal behind her and all the land became covered with a bed of red-hot embers. But the dogs did not stop. They kept on painfully, over the red-hot embers until they got to the other side, and then they ran on faster than ever until they came within sight of Lilwa and Hussein.

When Lilwa saw them she took the piece of an old broken water jar and threw it behind her and all the land became covered with water. The dogs came to the water which they couldn"t cross. They began to drink saying to one another, You drink, and I"ll drink. You drink, and I"ll drink. And they drank and drank and their bellies got bigger and bigger until they burst and the dogs died.

When the magician saw that Lilwa and Hussein were going to escape, he threw a pin after Lilwa and it entered her head and at once she changed into a dove. The magician threw a needle after Hussein and it entered his head and at once he also changed into a dove.
The two doves flew on together until they came to the sultan"s palace. There they alighted on a window sill outside the room of the wife of the sultan and they began to mourn, Hussein, Hussein.

The wife of the sultan, who was sitting in the room, almost blind from weeping, heard the doves mourning and calling, Hussein, Hussein. She said, Open the window and let them in. One dove sat on her right shoulder and one on her left. She began to stroke their feathers
and she said, Poor bird, this one has a needle in its head. She removed the needle. She stroked the feathers of the other bird and said, Poor bird, this one has a pin in its head. She removed the pin. Then sud¬denly the doves disappeared, and Lilwa and Hussein stood before her.

The sultan and his wife were so happy to have their son back that they consented to the marriage of Lilwa and Hussein. They celebrated the wedding for forty days and forty nights, and they lived happily ever after.