Childless king meets four night dervishes
Azad Bakht, king of Rum, despairs of having no heir and withdraws from rule. Wandering at night, he comes upon four dervishes sitting by a lamp in a graveyard and secretly listens as each recounts how pursuit of love, wealth or generosity brought him to ruin and exile. Their stories, together with the king's own tale, frame his consolation, and a son is eventually born to him. The dervishes' separate quests are then resolved together through the intervention of the jinn king Malik Shahbal.