Now when Luhrásp, descending from the throne
Resigned it to Gushtásp, he made him ready
To go to Naubahár in cherished Balkh,
Because he had become God's votary,
And men then held that fane in reverence,
Just as the Arabs reverence Mecca now.
He reached the fane, the Sháh, that man of God,
Dismounted there, and there at last he died.
He shut the portal of that glorious fane,
And let no alien enter it, assumed
The woollen raiment of a devotee—
The garniture wherein to worship wisdom—
Put off his armlets, let his hair grow long,
And set himself to serve the all-just Judge.
Upstanding in His presence thirty years,
Such is the way that men should serve the Lord,
He offered supplication to the sun,
According to the custom of Jamshíd.
Gushtásp, succeeding to his father's throne,
His Grace, and fortune, donned his father's gift,
The crown, fit ornament of noble men.
“I am,” he said, “a Sháh that serveth God,
And holy God hath given me this crown
That I might keep the wolves apart the flock.

Toward God's way will we stretch forth our hands,
And to the noble straiten not the world,
But, as hath been the custom of the Sháhs,
Convert ill-doers to the Faith of God.”
He spread abroad his justice in such wise
That wolf and sheep drank of the stream together.
At length Náhíd, illustrious Cæsar's daughter,
She whom the noble Sháh named Katáyún,
Bare him two sons, each like the moon in splendour,
One, famous, glorious Asfandiyár,
A warlike prince and doughty cavalier,
The other, Bishútan, the valiant swordsman,
A famous prince, a shatterer of hosts.
The new Sháh, when acknowledged by the world,
Was fain to be another Farídún.
All other kings paid tribute, and the heart
Of every liege was well disposed to him,
Save King Arjásp, the ruler of Túrán,
Who had the dívs for servants and admitted
No claim for tribute, would not hear advice,
And since he would not hear was doomed to chains.
He took too tribute from the Sháh each year,
But why should one pay tribute to his peer?