Fereydun was hunted from the day he was born. Zahhak, the king with a snake growing from each shoulder, had dreamed that a boy by that name would end his thousand-year reign. So Faranak hid her son, first in a meadow and then in the mountains, until he was grown.

When Kaveh raised the city against Zahhak, Fereydun came down from the mountains to lead it. Carrying a mace with the head of an ox, he took the tyrant's palace. He did not kill Zahhak. He chained him inside Mount Damavand.

He ruled for five hundred years. In his old age he divided the world between his sons, Salm, Tur and Iraj, and lived long enough to see what came of it. His last act was to set the crown on the head of Manuchehr.