Our forefather Gün Han’s son, Düýp Ýabgy Han, was a wise Soltan, so wise that he would himself examine potential employees or others whom he would appoint to posts. There were two friends among Düýp Ýabgy Han’s commanders. Those friends were both very brave, virtuous, handsome and polite men. Düýp Ýabgy Han kept a close eye on the two friends for a long time. He once wanted to appoint one of them as the chief commander of armies responsible for the protection of the whole nation and its lands together with the provision of security for the Soltan himself.

Düýp Ýabgy Han issued an order. The guards of the Soltan would go and seize the potential chief commander, tie his hands and beat him almost to death, and jail him. And later the judges of the country would accuse him of attempting to assassinate the Soltan and sentence him to death.

The commander whom the Soltan was planning to appoint to the post of chief commander was thus awaiting death.

The Soltan subjects the jailed commander’s friend to the same plot. He is accused of the same crime and jailed. Before the execution of the penalty, the Soltan calls the first commander before him and says:

“I loved you as I did my son. I was planning to appoint you to the office of the chief commander, and I now see what you were after.”

The commander replied:

“Soltan of the world, I don’t know how I betrayed my country. How could you decide that I had done so?”

The Soltan said:

“Before I take decisions of any type, I spend much time thinking. This friend of yours told me that you were planning an assassination. Here’s his letter telling me that.” In all seriousness, the Soltan told the commander that he had been betrayed by his friend. Knowing that the Soltan was a man of integrity, the commander said in a shocked manner:  

“If it is my friend who told you that I was planning that, then do punish me. My friend would never lie. I trust him as much as I do myself. The death penalty is right for me.”

The Soltan said nothing in reply. He went to the jail where the commander’s friend was detained. He told him the same as he had said to his fellow commander. That commander said in reply:

“If it is my friend who did what you said, then carry out the punishment. For my friend would prefer death to lying.”

The next day the Soltan called the two friends before him.

“Now that I have such upright and honest men like you, there is no castle I can’t conquer,” said the Soltan, tears in his eyes. And he told them about the scheme he had planned. The Soltan then appointed one of these fellow commanders to the office of the chief commander, and the other to the office of the vizier.

(352-355.)