There was once a king called Máhiya-sar, whose head was abnormally small, and devoid of hair. He therefore always wore a turban, summer and winter, night and day, so that no one could see his head. Some say that he was a Jew named Sham'ún (Simon) b. Khudádád, others that he was a Magian named Bálí the son of Farrukh-Ádín. His mother, Rúz the daughter of Khurshíd, was a cunning witch and sorceress, incomparable in her time in the arts of Magic. They dwelt in a place four parasangs from ´Amul, called now Âsí-Vísha and his palace was in a village which still exists and is called Vílír (<Arabic>). Between the villages of Kílankúr (<Arabic>) and Shír-ábád is a great forest, thick and high, which is still called Máhiya-sarí Diz, and near it is a deep moat or dyke filled with water covered with duck-weed (<Arabic>), into which anything which falls disappears for ever, while no boat can cross it, and any animal falling into it does but drown the quicker the more it struggles. On that side where the north wind blows there is an open space, where grow daffodils the like of which in fragrance can be nowhere found; while in the village of Vílír is a certain species of fig (<Arabic>), superior to those of Ḥulwán. Now this king Máhiya-sar was a wicked and unprincipled tyrant, of whom his subjects stood in terror, and he had accumulated vast wealth which he had buried under various buildings, When 'Abdu`lláh b. Maḥmúd b. Núḥ Abu`l-'Abbás was governor of Ṭabaristán, an old man a hundred years of age came before him from that district, and gave him certain indications as to the site of these buried treasures. Abu`l-'Abbás accordingly sent skilled and trusted man to excavate (f. 41a), and in these excavations they expended much money, but whenever they came on traces of treasure a landslip always occurred, killing several and nullifying their labours, so that at last they were forced to abandon their attempts.