Bahram Gur and the Indian Princess

'Bahram Gur and the Indian Princess', an artwork painted by the artist 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn 'Abd al-Fattah ibn 'Ali, is an illustration of one of the scenes of the Persian Poet Nizami Ganjavi's epic poem 'Haft Peykar' (also known as Bahramnameh), literally translated as 'Seven Portraits' with the figurative meaning 'Seven Beauties'. 'Haft Peykar' is a part of Nizami Ganjavi's 'Khamsa', the quintet of narrative poems, which includes the famous tales of 'Khosrow and Shirin' and 'Layla and Majnun'. 'Haft Peykar' is a romanticized tale of the Sasanian ruler Bahram-e Gur who discovers a mysterious palace with seven portraits of seven beautiful ladies. Enamoured, Bahram seeks out of marry all seven of them, and after an adventurous journey, he is successful in doing so. He bestows his seven beauties with seven palaces, each with its own colour and theme, and to each of them he devotes one day of the week. The above picture is a demonstration of Bahram Gur and the Indian Princess, one of the seven beauties, in conversation as she regales him with the story of a fantasy garden with fairies and their queen: "A cypress she, those maids her mead; they jasmine, she a rose of red." The illustration itself is composed in Persian miniature technique, using ink and mineral pigments to achieve the classic Islamic style.