Lake Saif-ul-Malook: The romantic site of two magical lovers
This year, my family and I made a trip to the northern area of Pakistan, called Naran Kaghan, which is a 5-hour drive from the capital city, Islamabad. We stayed there for 5 days, in Grey Walls Huts and Cottages, and had a pretty relaxed itinerary, except for one thing: We had to visit the legendary lake, Saif-ul-Malook.
The lake derives its name from the Egyptian prince who is at the center of the folklore love story surrounding this lake. According to a local folk tale, the prince of Egypt, called Saif, had a perplexing dream one night that led to the beginning of his fabled romance. As a local guide told us, ‘Prince Saif dreamt of a lake that he had never seen before but he dreamt it in so much detail that he could see the mountains that surrounded it, the water that shimmered in emerald-green colors at night, and the lush green valley that it was situated in. But in that dream, he also saw ethereal-looking fairies of Koh-e-Kaaf, out of which one stood out as the most radiant, beautiful, and magnificent creature he had ever seen. This was the queen fairie, Badr-ul-Jamal, whose laughter, joy, and beauty had driven a pang so deep in the heart of the prince that he woke up in inexplicable sadness, with tears streaming down his eyes.’
When he woke up from this strange dream, he informed his father that he was in love, and his father immediately began preparing for a wedding, before finding out that Saif was in love with a creature made of fire instead of human flesh. Upon this revelation, his father told him to completely abandon this thought but, after much convincing and begging, Saif managed to get his father’s blessing on going out to seek the woman of his dreams — quite literally.
‘The prince searched far and wide in all of Egypt for six long years for the lake that he had imagined but had lost himself in the process, without a glimpse of hope in sight. He had turned into a beggar and a madman roaming Egyptian streets with tattered clothes and grown-out hair, still adamant in his search. Having forgotten his royal roots, he stumbled upon an old, holy man, who called him by his princely title and was immediately taken aback. As he approached this old man, thinking his wisdom would guide him, the old man said “I’ve been waiting for you Prince Saif”.’
‘Before Saif could recover from this strange encounter, the old man placed a battered, sheepskin hat in Saif’s hand and told him to never give up, as nothing comes without struggle. Baffled, Saif put on the cap and was immediately transported to the place he most desired: Lake Saif ul Mulook.’
This cap became famous as the Sulemani Topi, a cap that carries magical powers for the wearer. However, it came with a caveat; the jinn, or mystical creature, that had given the cap its powers, told Saif, as soon as he reached the lake that, for 40 days, he must pray, sit in a circle without moving from it, and remain without food, drink, or sleep, in order to see the fairie he had traveled here for. The excitement that came with finally finding the lake he had searched high and low for, immediately vanished, but remaining steadfast in his endeavor, Saif took on this challenge as well.
‘Saif preserved through this hardship, with his face getting thinner and body growing weaker but his yearning growing even stronger. Having lost count of days, every night he simply wondered if that was the night he would see Badr. Then, on the full moon, the 14th night of the lunar moon, the fairies finally flew down to the lake, as they did every full moon to bathe.’
‘Saif, dumbstruck, ran behind a boulder to quietly observe them, and only came to his senses when they showed signs of leaving to go back, realizing that he had to take some action. He asked the mythical creature, the jinn, to aid him in his quest by hiding Badr’s wings, which she had taken off to bathe, so that she wouldn’t be able to fly away.’
‘The jinn complied and, once out of the water, Badr was perplexed. The other fairies attempted to help her but knowing that their Giant master would be enraged at their late arrival, they flew away and left Badr behind. Saif finally took this opportunity to speak to her, beginning with an apology for taking her wings and explaining the entire quest he had been on to help her understand his actions. To his great, but pleasant, surprise, however, Badr confessed to having had a similar dream but never thinking that it would actually materialize.’
‘However, upon this realization, they were both ecstatic and held each other in a long embrace before Badr realized how angry her master was now going to be. She tried to get Saif to let her go but Saif was adamant that they would find a way around it. Deo Safed, the giant who was master of the fairies was, as expected infuriated upon learning that Badr had been left behind and set out on a search to get her back, as she was the most special of the fairies for him.’
‘Hearing his footsteps from far away, the couple became frightened and began to pray to God to save them from the giant’s wrath. The giant’s big footsteps, however, caused a huge storm in the lake and the couple thought that this was going to be their end. Continuing their prayers, they latched on to each other and soon found themselves in a dry and silent place. Thinking they had died, they opened their eyes, only to find themselves in a tunnel under the lake.’
‘They celebrated this feat and decided to stay together in this tunnel carved for them for the rest of their lives, avoiding the wrath of the giant in the process. To this day, therefore, they are said to surface on every full moon to celebrate the commemoration of this love.’
Dumbfound by this romantic folktale, we had decided that we must go see the majestic lake ourselves and the scene did not disappoint. Truly emerald in color, the lake is surrounded by some of the lushest mountains and is the perfect sight of nature one is bound to fall in love with, even in the absence of fairies. This is what the mesmerizing lake looks like in person:
To this day, there are locals who believe that the couple resurface on the full moon night of every lunar month and warn tourists not to travel to the lake during that time. This is also because locals living nearby have narrated stories of hearing mysterious sounds from the lake on those full moon nights. The full moon was set to appear on one of the days that we were staying in the valley and most locals refused to take us to the lake on that night, claiming that it was haunted by the spirits of the two lovers and that it became frightening and dangerous at night.
Due to this reason, we never got to witness the mysterious sounds or creatures that are fabled to be there on those nights, but the perplexity of this story has left me wanting more, which means that the next time I visit this valley, it will definitely be around a full moon and I will trek to the lake myself to figure out the mystery of the magical lovers.
