Khusrau then called and charged a trusty scribe.

First in the letter he gave praise to God
That He had purged the earth of wickedness,
Had overthrown the chief of sorcerers,
And waked the fortune that had slumbered so—
God, Source of might, of knowledge, and of justice,
And everywhere the Joy of the oppressed—
Then: “By the fortune of Sháh Kai Káús,
The great, the experienced, the benevolent,
This Gang that was Afrásiyáb's was stormed,
The head of his good fortune fell on sleep.
In sooth upon a single battlefield
Full forty thousand of his warlike chiefs,
Illustrious men who wielded massive maces,
Fell in their ranks by the Gulzaryún,
And afterward there came a hurricane,
Which rent the trees asunder, root and bough,
And drowned a multitude that still opposed us.
Afrásiyáb escaped to Gang-bihisht,
A place of arms completely garrisoned,
And of a truth in the ensuing siege
There perished thirty thousand warriors.
The tyrant showed himself to be a man,
But was not helped by wisdom or by fortune.
His troops are scattered over all his realm,
And he himself hath vanished from the world.
Hereafter I will send the Sháh reports
Whenever further glory shall be mine.”
He sealed the letter with his golden signet,
And, having gladly sent it to Káús,
Disposed himself for mirth with fairy-faced ones
To bring him wine. 'Twas thus till spring, the world
Became a paradise of hue and scent,
The plain resembled painted silk, the sky
A leopard's back; the onager and deer
Roamed o'er the waste, and time passed blithely on
With hawk and cheetah in pursuit of game,
With musky wine and Idols of Taráz.
The cattle like so many onagers
Spread far and wide; their necks grew full of
strength
Like lions' and their ears and heads like stags'.
Khusrau moreover sent forth those that spied
Upon the world's affairs to every side.