Having been separated, they spend the remainder of the story struggling through many ingenious adventures toward a reunion and a happy ending. Actually, the emperor's daughter is the protagonist here while the king's son remains in exile and servitude until she redeems him at the end of the story. One might add that the tension between the demands of the genre and the allegorical impulse is evident throughout the story. The four episodes in which the emperor's daughter is the protagonist are designed to elevate her to a position of royal power and wealth from which she can declare that all exiles must be returned to the capital for the festivities accompanying her marriage. While these episodes lead to a definite goal, the attention and inventiveness invested in them suggest a discernible delight in fabulation.
Divine forces seem to be manipulating the story throughout.
The pledge is sealed, as in the Jewish wedding ritual, by a ring given by the prince to the emperor's daughter. When the emperor tries to prevent the match and establishes a difficult trial for the king's son, the young couple take matters into their own hands and, upon the advice of the emperor's daughter, flee the country. The narrative that follows is a description of an attempt not to recover the ring, but rather to reunite the couple. Having been married by the very act of his giving her the ring, they do not need to have the marriage consecrated again. The original ring does not have to be discovered since the fact it symbolizes, the union of the couple, has been reestablished.