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Enishte attends the funeral procession of Elegant, meeting up with the other master miniaturists. He reasons to stop working on the book before recalling a memory of when he was compelled to visit Venice to declare the Sultan’s intention to take Cyprus and resolving the book must be completed.

Shekure argues with her father about the prospect of divorce and remarriage and reveals to the reader the secret relationship between her father and Hayriye.

Esther lets Hasan read Black’s letter to Shekure. Hasan also gives her a letter for Shekure to whom she then delivers both and is disheartened by them, saying she is waiting for her husband to return.

Sancho complains to Don Quixote about his conditions as a squire. The pair continue their journey to the River Ebro where they find an empty fishing boat, which Don Quixote perceives to be enchanted and indicative of a knight across the world in need of help. The pair gets in the boat and lets the current take them to a mill, where they encounter angry mill workers and the boat gets destroyed.

Black visits the other two master miniaturists. Stork tells three parables about the value of time in illustration. Olive relates three stories that exemplify the virtue of blindness in art and how it connects the artist with the world as Allah sees it.

Black first visits Butterfly, who narrates three parables related to style and signature, and then is questioned by Black about Elegant’s disappearance.

Black, after mulling over the meaning of Shekure’s letter and appearance at the window, makes his way to the Sultan’s workshop. Here he reunites with Master Osman after 15 years and is shown what is being worked on including the illustrations for the Book of Festivities. They speak about the four master miniaturists and the growing influence of western art styles, heretical to the Islamic tradition.

A sketch of a tree doesn’t want to be a tree, it wants to be its meaning.

As she quickly closes the window from which she saw Black, Shekure recounts growing up with him as well as her marriage to her husband and later her unhappily living with her in-laws after his disappearance.

The author relates the origin of the puppeteer’s being the convict who stole Sancho’s donkey. Don Quixote and Sancho set out for Saragossa and are met with a convoy from the village of brayers anticipating a battle with a neighboring village.

Esther recounts how she came to possess the letter and what she makes of it.

Orhan interrupts the meeting of Black and Enishte, briefly meets Black, and is scolded by his mother. Black’s mind is occupied by thoughts of Shekure as he wraps up his visit and begins the his journey to the Sultan’s workshop. He runs into a peddler named Esther who gives him a mysterious letter and points him in the direction of a window where is love is looking from.

The murderer, in apparent paranoia, recounts the murder and its motive-a dispute over a work of art commissioned by the sultan between him and his fellow miniaturist. A comparison is drawn between the murder and a crude work of art. Then Enishte recounts to Black how he was commissioned with his apprentices to do the illustration.

A murdered man describes his killing and pleads for vengeance on his killer. A man returns to Istanbul after working abroad for twelve years and describes his walk around town on a snowy night, including visits to family members’ graves and trying to discover the whereabouts of his love. The storyteller’s picture of a dog refutes Islam’s canine disdain and expresses his hatred for the cleric.

The puppeteer tells a rather lighthearted story of Doña Melisendra, daughter of Charlemagne, captured by Moors, grudgingly rescued by her husband Don Gaiferos. Don Quixote, believing he is still under an enchantment, takes the puppets for real people and destroys them as the papier-mâché Moors pursue the escaped captive.

Don Quixote and his faithful pal Sancho accompanied by the cousin continue their adventure post Cave of Montesinos, being related a story of a lost donkey and encountering a divining ape.

Loving this poem-almost finished-just Book XII to go.