King Jalal was deeply sad. He had such a large kingdom, but to whom could he entrust its rule and close his eyes in peace? One by one, he married seven times, but still, no child was born in any of his households. In his sorrow, the king entrusted the kingdom to his vizier and minister and began to walk towards the forest, taking only a bed and a pillow with him.
As he walked, he suddenly saw a man sleeping on the bare ground. The king gave him the pillow. Then he started walking again. After going some distance, he saw another person lying on the ground, and the king gave him the bed. Then, at some point, he fell asleep. In a dream, the king met a sage who told him that if he walked east, he would find a forest. In the middle of that forest was a banana tree with many bunches of bananas. If he took the ripe bananas from a bunch and fed them to his queens, they would have children.
The king returned and ordered his queens to eat the bananas. The six elder queens despised the youngest queen because she came from a poor family. For this reason, they gave her no bananas. The youngest queen saw the others eating something. She picked up the banana peels from the ground, made a pill out of them, and swallowed it. A few days later, the youngest queen became pregnant, but nothing happened to the six other queens. The king was overjoyed and began to take great care of the queen.
Finally, the queen gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. But the six queens threw the boy into a taro patch and replaced him with a frog. Hearing that a frog had been born, the king became furious and appointed the queen as a gardener. Meanwhile, in the taro patch, a tiger found the king’s son and began to raise him. Slowly, many years passed. When the prince reached a marriageable age, the tiger one day secretly left him at the home of a childless shepherd. The shepherd named him Harun.
One day, Harun had a dream about a stunningly beautiful girl. The king of Gunjonkanon had imprisoned her. She had been raised by bears, which is why everyone called her the Bear Girl. In the dream, she repeatedly begged Harun to rescue her. Waking up, Harun immediately set off in search of the Bear Girl.
After traveling a long way, he grew tired and sat down to rest by a large pond in front of a royal palace. The king saw him and took a great liking to him. The king proposed that Harun marry his daughter, but Harun’s heart was set only on the Bear Girl. The king, however, did not give up hope. He had a temple built for Harun to live in by the pond. But Prince Harun was very mischievous. Whenever a girl came to the pond to fetch water, Harun would break her pot with his slingshot. All the girls complained to the king. The king announced that anyone whose pot was broken should take a new one from the palace. But Harun continued to break someone’s pot every day. Fed up, the king told his executioner to frighten Harun. But instead, Harun scared the executioner away.
Then, without telling anyone, he started walking again to find the Bear Girl. After a long journey, he befriended two men. He told them about the Bear Girl, his queen of dreams. One day, they decided to rest in a village. One friend went to cook, but after he finished, a demon came and ate everything. The friend bought more food and cooked again, and the same thing happened. This occurred with everyone. But when Harun cooked and the demon appeared, he beat the demon so badly that one of its legs broke. The demon fled in fear.
After this, the three of them walked into a dense forest. There, they found a temple. At the temple door were a tiger and a deer. But in front of the tiger was grass, and in front of the deer was meat. As soon as Harun swapped the two meals, the temple door swung open. Inside, they saw two exceptionally beautiful princesses asleep. A silver stick lay near their heads, and a golden stick lay at their feet. Harun swapped the sticks, placing the one from their heads at their feet and the one from their feet at their heads, and instantly, they awoke.
“Why have you come here?” they asked. “The demon will eat you.” Harun then informed them that they had already driven the demon away. Harun then married his two friends to the two princesses. He gave them a tree as a gift and said, “If this tree withers, know that I am in danger.” With these words, he started walking towards Gunjonkanon.
When King Kondor was fleeing from his enemy, his daughter was born. Her beauty illuminated her surroundings. But how could he raise his daughter in this forest? They themselves had nothing to eat. So, they left the girl and went away. A group of bears then found the baby girl and raised her. The lord of Gunjonkanon hoped that if a human ever came to the forest, he would marry him to the Bear Girl. The lord was very happy to see Harun and told him his wish. When Harun saw the Bear Girl, he knew she was the queen from his dreams. They were then married and both began to live in Gunjonkanon.
But one day, a prince came hunting and fell in love with the Bear Girl at first sight. Even knowing she was married, he wanted her for himself. He returned to his kingdom and became almost mad with desire. An old woman then promised to bring him the Bear Girl. Using various temptations, the old woman lured the Bear Girl to the prince.
Meanwhile, seeing the leaves of the tree wither, Harun’s two friends understood that their friend was in great danger. They rushed to Harun’s side. Harun, along with his two friends, went to rescue his beloved. They cut down large trees from the mountains and waged war against everyone in that kingdom, snatching the Bear Girl away.
Afterward, they all went to the house of the shepherd who had raised him. The shepherd was overjoyed to see his son happy. He arranged a huge feast. The king, the six queens, and the tiger that had found Harun in the taro patch were all invited. After the feast, the shepherd told everyone the story of Harun’s birth. When the king learned that this was his son, he quickly sent for the youngest queen. The queen left her work in the garden, came, and embraced Harun. This was her long-lost child. The king then had the six evil queens executed and began to live happily with the youngest queen, Harun, and the Bear Girl.