The Patience Stone
A Turkish Fairy Tale
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Retold by The Legendary Connection
TLC#00046
Once upon a time, there was a poor woman who had a kind and devoted daughter named Beyza. One day, while the mother went out to do the laundry, Beyza sat by the window, working on her embroidery. Suddenly, a little bird flew in and said, “Oh, poor girl, your true love seems to have died,” and then flew away. This left Beyza feeling very upset. When her mother returned, Beyza told her everything. Her mother advised, “Always close the window and door when you’re working.”
The next day, when her mother left again, Beyza locked both the door and window before continuing her embroidery. However, as she looked up, she saw the bird perched on her table again! “Oh, poor girl, your true love seems to have died,” the bird repeated before flying away. Frightened, Beyza told her mother again when she returned. “Tomorrow,” her mother advised, “lock the door and window and work in the closet by candlelight.”
On the third day, Beyza did as her mother said. She locked the house, hid in the closet, and lit a small candle to begin her embroidery. But after only a few stitches, the bird appeared again in front of her. “Oh, poor girl, your true love seems to have died,” the bird repeated before flying away. Beyza was so scared that she couldn’t work anymore, and all she could think about was the bird’s strange message.
Her mother became worried, and they decided to stay at home together, hoping to see the bird. But the bird never returned. Day after day, they waited. One day, some of Beyza’s friends came and asked if she could come out to play. Her mother was hesitant, but after they promised to look after her, she let Beyza go with them.
The girls played happily in the meadow until sunset. On the way home, they stopped at a spring to drink some water. As Beyza drank from the spring, a magical wall suddenly appeared, separating her from her friends. The wall was too tall to climb and too wide to go around. Terrified, the girls cried out, “What will happen to Beyza?”
Back at home, Beyza’s mother anxiously waited for her daughter’s return. When the girls came back crying, they told her everything. Horrified, Beyza’s mother rushed to the wall. Both mother and daughter wept on either side of the wall, but they could not see each other. Eventually, Beyza fell asleep, exhausted from crying.
The next morning, Beyza woke up and noticed a large door in the wall. She opened it and found herself in a beautiful palace. Inside, she found forty keys hanging on the wall. Beyza used the keys to open each room, discovering rooms filled with silver, gold, diamonds, and precious stones. Finally, she reached the last room and found a handsome prince lying in a coffin, with a sign on his chest that read, “Whoever fans me for forty days will discover their true love.”
Beyza remembered the bird’s words and knew this was her true love. She began fanning the prince day and night, praying for him. On the morning of the fortieth day, Beyza saw a servant girl outside the palace and called her in to help while she went to wash. The servant girl, noticing the prince’s note, took Beyza’s place, fanning him until the prince awoke. The prince, seeing the servant girl, believed she was the one who had saved him.
When Beyza returned, she was shocked to find the servant girl claiming to be the prince’s true love. The servant girl called Beyza a mere cook and sent her to work in the kitchen. The prince, confused, accepted the servant girl as his bride, unaware of the deception.
Days later, as the festival of Bairam approached, the prince asked his servants what they would like as gifts. The servant girl asked for clothing that had not been cut with scissors or sewn with a needle. When the prince asked Beyza what she wanted, she simply replied, “A yellow patience stone.”
The prince searched far and wide for the patience stone. When he finally found it, he brought it back to Beyza in the kitchen. Curious about why she had requested such an unusual gift, he hid and watched as Beyza began talking to the stone.
Beyza told the stone her whole story—the bird’s message, the magical wall, the palace, and how she had fanned the prince for forty days, only to be betrayed by the servant girl. As she spoke, the stone swelled, moaned, and eventually cracked open from the weight of her sorrow. Beyza cried out, “Oh, yellow patience stone, though you are stone, you cannot bear it! How, then, must I, a weak girl, bear it?”
At that moment, the prince jumped out from his hiding place, realizing the truth. “You are my true love!” he exclaimed. He sent the servant girl away and took Beyza as his wife. Beyza’s mother joined them in the palace, and they all lived happily ever after.
Sometimes, a little bird would fly by the palace window and sing joyfully, “Oh, happy girl! You have found your true love and your destiny!”
Original Source: “Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales: Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife.” Sacred-Texts.com, sacred-texts.com/asia/ftft/ftft24.htm. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
Based on “The Patience Stone and the Patience Knife” from Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales
*Beware the original version has questionable language and some derogatory depictions.
