Anecdote

Immediately after the diagonal verse in which Zulaykha is compared to a wolf, we find on the lower part of the folio the continuation of the anecdote as composed in verse by Saʿdi:

Now that Egyptian lady had a marble idol
To which she was devoted, morn and evening,
And at that moment she covered up its face and head,
Lest it should have an ugly view of what went forward;
Grief-stained, Joseph in a corner sat.
Hands upon head against the tyranny of lower-self;
Zulaikhā now kissed his two hands and feet;
‘Weakling in your promises, insubordinate, come on!From Morals Pointed and Tales Adorned. The Būstān of Saʿdī. Translated by G.M. Wickens. Leiden: Brill, 1974, 236

The marble idol and Zulaykha’s idle worshipping of this idol are the central themes of Saʿdi’s anecdote, exemplifying the theme of his chapter: shame and repentance. Bihzad did not choose to paint the marble idol, but a palace full of rooms by way of context for the frenzied passion of Zulaykha. Why? This has everything to do with another poet, a contemporary of Bihzad, employed by the same patron as Bihzad.