SAIF UL MALOOK LAKE PAKISTAN

Prince Saiful Mulook and Badi-ul- Jamal is a classic fable from the Hazara region of Pakistan. It tells the story of a Prince's love for a fairy; the name Saiful Malook refers to a lake in northern Pakistan. The story of Saif ul Muluk is that the Prophet [[Joseph] (Yosuf) is asked who will be the handsomest man after him and he has two seals made, and says that the man will be my descendant and will inherit these seals, and so after many years when Saif ul Muluk comes of age and is bequeathed these seals among many other treasures, on one of them is a picture of himself and on the other is a picture of the beautiful fairy Princess Badi-ul-Jamal, meaning the glory of the moon, he falls in love and thus begins his long arduous journey to find her. Prince, Saif ul Malook fell in love with a fairy princess, Badr-ul-Jamal, whom he saw in his dreams. The prince was restless until a Dervish (holy man) told him where to find her (i.e. by the lake) and that he had to go through a tough exam to be able to marry the fairy because the prince was a human and she was a fairy. Thus the prince marched on his quest for the impossible in the name of love. He waited by the lake where there was no habitation (and there still is not), no food, nothing. His long wait of 12 years, finally reaped harvest and one good morning he saw the fairy come to bathe with her maids and friends in the lake. Later when he does find her, he learns that her soul is trapped in the tallest mountain of the lake which is now called "Saif ul Muluk" and the mountain is "Malka Purbat" which means "the Mountain of the Fairies" and that she is bound to Jinn, and he can only free her when the Jinn is dead, but he cannot defeat him using ordinary means, for the Jinn has hidden his soul in talisman of some sort and hidden it away, Saiful Maluk and his army succeed in finding the talisman and killing the jinn but igniting a 40 year war between the jinn of the earth and those who dwell in the spirit world. The prince hid her wings as advised by the holy man. The fairy was very tense at not finding her wings. Eventually the prince appeared and told her about his tale of love and long wait, which moved the fairy and they agreed to marry. But there is always a villain. So a Deuo Safaid (the white giant) who was himself in love with the fairy got jealous and furious. In rage the giant cried and thus tear lake (ansoo jheel, approx. 2 miles away ) was formed. The giant stepped angrily, the dam broke and the outlet to the lake Saif-ul-Mulook was formed. The prince and the fairy princess fled away in a cave (which still exists and its length is unknown to this day). The legend says that both the prince and the fairy live in the centre of the lake saifulmulook, and on every full moon night they emerge mounted on a white flying horse, the pagasus, from the centre of the lake.