Rudabeh is Mehrab of Kabul's daughter, and her family is on the wrong side of an old feud. Zal comes to her tower at night. She offers her hair for him to climb, and he will not use it, because it would hurt her, and sends up a rope instead. That exchange is the whole marriage in miniature.

Every authority available objects to the match, and they marry anyway. Rostam is their son, and the birth nearly kills her: it takes the Simorgh, a feather and a method nobody in the story has heard of before.