The Iran-ban’s husband beheld a vast lake and saw that forests surrounded it, and that along part of its shores people were sowing wheat. Zab, who had lost Iran’s primordial paradise, when he saw that great lake and the forests, realized he had once more found a paradise; he thought he should not live in the city of Sialk and that it would be better to move his dwelling from Sialk to the shore of that lake.
Zab’s state of mind at that time was like that of a man in our own age who had been wealthy, lost his wealth, then spent a long period in poverty, and at last, through some turn of fortune, becomes prosperous again. Such a person, the second time, knows the value of wealth and will neither waste it nor let it slip away, for the long season of want has taught him to cherish it.
Zab, too—who for years in Sialk had suffered from scant water and heat, and whose eyes had not fallen on lake or forest—was so delighted by the sight of that lake and its surrounding forests that he temporarily forgot the matter of the Turanians and said to himself that he must return and inform the Iran-ban of that great lake and forest, telling her they could abandon Sialk, move to that lakeside, and live there.
So Zab returned, reached Sialk, and told his wife what he had seen. The Iran-ban, like her husband, rejoiced and said, “Living by that lake will once again make us happy; but I cannot abandon the people here and leave. Besides, my successor, Rud the Second, is in Giyan with her husband; if I go, I shall be far from my successor.” Zab said, “We will tell Rud the Second and her husband to migrate with us so that we may dwell by that lake.”
After a few days of hesitation, the Iran-ban finally decided to inform the inhabitants of Sialk and the residents of the other towns—especially those of Giyan—that she intended to go and live by a lake in the east of Iran, so that there she might regain the lost good fortune; and that anyone who wished to live in a land like the former land should join her, while those who preferred to remain in this region might continue their lives here.
When some of the people heard that in eastern Iran there was a great lake encircled by forest, and that there one could farm and raise livestock, they resolved to migrate, abandon Sialk, and go to settle by that lake. Others, because of coppersmithing, preferred to remain in Sialk.
Rud the Second, the Iran-ban’s daughter, and her husband, Tam, agreed to migrate; and thus the capital of Iran, which had been Sialk, was transferred to eastern Iran, to the shore of the great eastern lake—which later was named “Hāmun.”
