bird. With the help of a wolf, he also acquires a gray horse with golden mane and liberates a golden-haired maiden from the many-headed azdahas. Asia Middle East In a Syrian tale collected by Uwe Kuhr with the title Der Falke ("The Falcon"), a king has two sons named Saif ad-Din and Baha ad-Din by his first wife, and a son named Aladdin by his Black concubine. He also has a beautiful tree in his garden, with leaves of gold, silver and diamonds that are stolen by a giant falcon. The three sons stand guard on the tree, but only Aladdin discovers the falcon. The king then sends them after the bird. Aladdin rescues a snake that becomes a girl and offers him guidance in his quest: for the bird from the Hall of Birds of Prey, for the flying horse of the giant demons, for the all-crushing sword that vanquishes enemies, and for princess Fatima, taken by the ghouls. South Asia In an Indian variant, In Search of a Dream, the youngest prince quests for an emerald bird, because his father, the king, had a dream about a beautiful garden, with a tree in it where the bird was perched. Apart from this tale, Indian scholar A. K. Ramanujan pointed the existence of twenty-seven variants collected from all over India. North Asia In a Tatar tale collected in Tobolsk, Der den Vogel suchende Fürstensohn ("The Prince's Son that seeks the bird") and published in Vasily Radlov's collection, the prince's youngest son watches his father's house at night and finds a bird. Soon, he travels to capture the bird and bring it home. With the help of a wolf, he later steals seven wonderful horses and a golden cithara from two different foreign princes and finally abducts a princess from a fourth realm. In a tale from a Shor teller, titled "ПТИЦА СЧАСТЬЯ" ("The Bird of Good Fortune"), a rich man has three sons, the youngest named Alyg Ool. Alyg Ool is considered a fool and has slept by the fireplace so many years his skin is full of soot. One day, the father orders his sons to stand guard at their crops and shoo away the birds. Near the crops stands a beautiful birch tree. They notice that the birch leaves are being eaten by something, so they spend the next three nights on a vigil. The elder two