The winged horse a selfish khan imprisoned in ice for a hundred years. Aybars frees him by telling a story; and Akyel, in turn, opens the sky to him.
- Kind
- Tulpar (winged horse)
- Appearance
- Snow-white; golden mane and tail, silver hooves
- Captivity
- A hundred years, in Erlik's ice
- Deliverance
- A hearth ember and one night of conversation
- Weakness
- Figs (he never touches them, but he looks)
- In the palace
- Sleeps atop the dome
- Mythic origin
- The winged, wise horses of heroes in the Turkic epics
(When Akyel first spreads his wings, he neighs so loudly that the mountains ring.)
In the epics
In the Turkic epics, the horses of heroes are no ordinary horses. They speak, they think, they hear their masters' voices from afar, they fly over the seas. These winged horses are called tulpars. A hero's horse is very often his most faithful friend, and sometimes his teacher as well.
In the story
Akyel's former master was a khan who won wars but shared not one of his victories with anyone. Giving ear to Erlik's whisper, he wished to hide his most precious treasure, Akyel, as well: "Let this horse carry no one but me." When the khan died, Erlik sealed the horse inside a glacier. For a hundred years Akyel waited there, unable to spread his wings.
Aybars tries first a torch, then a knife, then Asena's claws; the ice will not break. Then he lights a fire with Umay's ember and begins to tell the horse in the ice about his father, the empty hall, the cook in the kitchen, the things he has seen along the road. As Akyel listens, he takes a seat at the table; the fire grows, the ice sweats, and at dawn the tulpar is free. Aybars does not wish to own him: "You can go wherever you wish. If you like, you can come with me." Akyel kneels and offers his back.
For a long time he does not fly. A hundred years of captivity have made him forget how to spread his wings, or perhaps made him afraid. It is above the orange groves of Tarsus, when Aybars leans to his ear and says "If we fall, we fall together," that he takes to the air for the first time. These are the wings that carry them to Mount Kaf, carry Zümrüdüanka's fledglings to the valley, and carry Aybars over the village in the Black Winter.
In the palace
He sleeps atop the palace dome with his wings folded. In Hasan Efendi's ledger there is a single line of accounts about him: "One fig, for the patience of a tulpar. A fair price."
