Fernando of Berbania had three sons Pedro, Diego and his favorite Juan.

The King (Fernando of Berbania) loved Juan so much that when one night he
dreamed that his two other sons(Pedro and Diego) got mad against their
youngest brother (Juan), the king became so frightened that he got really sick
with a malady, which none of the physicians of the kingdom were able to cure.
People advised him that Ibong Adarna was the one living being in the world that
could cure his illness.

He sent out his oldest son Pedro to look for this the Ibong Adarna. After days of
wandering through the forests he came to a tree of diamond, at the foot of which
he fell down tired and thirsty.
He never suspected that it was the tree of the Ibong Adarna and when the night
was setting the Ibong Adarna flung into the air the first of its seven songs, his
melody was so softly sweet that Pedro fell asleep.
After the seventh melody for the night, the bird defecated on the sleeping prince
who turned into stone.
When Pedro had not returned after one year, The King Fernando of Berbania
commanded his second son Diego to search for the same bird. He was also turned
into a stone at the foot of the enchanted tree.
Then the youngest son Juan, had the fortune to meet on his way an Old Hermit
who impressed by the virtuous and good manners of the young prince on
knowing the mission on which he had. He thought Juan. First, he provided him
with a knife and a fruit of lemon, warning him that if he wanted to free himself
from the irresistible drowsiness into which one would to be by the seven
melodies of the Ibong Adarna, he had to open on his body seven wounds and
distil into them the juice of the lemon that the pain thereby caused might present
him from sleeping. Then the hermit warned him to avoid any defecation that
might fall from the bird after it had sung its seven songs. Lastly, he told him that
after finishing his seventh song the famous bird would fall sleep and that the
prince should take advantage of this occasion to take him prisoner. The hermit
gave him a golden cord to tie the bird when caught and two pails of water to pour
over his two brothers and thereby bring them back to life.

Juan did as was bidden and soon found himself in possession of the Ibong Adarna
and on his way back to his home country with his two brothers, Pedro and Diego.
Since Juan was successful the two brothers were jealous. Pedro wanted to kill
 Juan. But Diego convinced Pedro that it was better to beat him instead. After
beating Juan to whom they owed their lives, they left him unconscious in the
middle of the road and the two brothers continued their way to the palace where
they presented themselves to their father King Fernando as the ones who
actually caught the bird Ibong Adarna. The bird refused to sing for the king in the
absence of Prince Juan.

The Old Hermit found Juan on the road. He cured his wounds. Then he went
home.
Then the Ibong Adarna burst into most harmonious song recounting it its proper
time to the king after he was cured the truth about the absence of Juan. The
monarch wanted the other brothers killed but Juan with a noble heart interceded
for them as always and once again reigned in the kingdom peace.

But on a certain night when Juan fell asleep while guarding the Ibong Adarna bird
in its golden cage, his two elder brothers again let out the bird from the cage so
that their father will get mad at Juan.
Juan thought it was his fault. He went out of the palace and started to go in
search of the famous bird.
King Fernando hurriedly ordered Pedro and Diego to search for the bird and
Juan.
During the search the bird could not be found anywhere, but the three brothers
happened to meet at a place close to a well which they decided to explore instead
of returning to the palace for the fear of the ire of their father. Pedro, the eldest,
was the first to descend by means of a cord lowered by the two brothers who
remained above; but he had gone a third of the way when he felt afraid and gave
sign for his two brothers to pull him out of the well.
Presently, Diego was let down but he too could not go farther down than half of
the way. When it was Juan's turn to go he allowed himself to be let down to the
lowest depths of the cistern.

There the prince discovered two enchanted palaces, the first being occupied by
Princess Juana who informed him she was being held prisoner by a giant, and the
second by Princess Leonora, also the prisoner of a big seven-headed serpent.
He killed the giant and the serpent. The prince tagged on the cord and soon came
up to the surface of the earth with the two princesses, whom his two brothers
soon wanted to take away from him.
 Pedro desired Princess Juana for himself and Diego wanted Princess Leonora.
Leonora discovered that she left her ring in the innermost recesses of the well.
Juan voluntarily offered to take it for her but when he was half way down. the
two brothers criminally let him fall to the bottom and abandoned him to his face.
Not long after wedding bells were rung in the palace. Pedro married Princess
Juana but Princess Leonora before getting married with Prince Diego requested
her marriage to him delayed for a term of seven years because she might still
have a chance to unite herself with Don Juan.
Don Juan, thanks to Leonora's enchanted ring found in the well, could avail
himself of the help of a wolf which cured him of his wounds, fix his dislocations,
bringing him the medicinal waters of the Jordan, and took him out of the well.

No hope of ever finding the Ibong Adarna, Don Juan resolved to return to the
Kingdom.
But to his confusion, he was unable to find his way. No one could tell him which
was the way that would lead him to the kingdom of his father.

He came across three hermits neither of whom could give him the necessary
information.
The last of these called into conference all the birds big and small around in those
parts, but none of them could tell the prince the direction towards the Berbanian
Kingdom.
But the king of the entire crowd, a swiftly soaring eagle, having compassion for his
troubles, offered to take the prince to wherever he desired. In long continued
flight the prince and the eagle traversed through infinite spaces until they came to
a distant crystal lake on whose shores they landed to rest from their long and
tiresome flight. Then the eagle relates to his companion the secrets of the Crystal
Lake. This was the bathing place where in certain hours of the day the three
daughters of the most powerful and most feared king for the surrounding regions
used to plunge and dive into the water and swim; and for this reason it was not
proper for the prince to commit any indiscretion if he desired to remain and se
the spectacle of the bath.
Don Juan remained and when the hour of the bathing arrived he saw plunging
into the pure crystal water the figures of the three most beautiful princesses
whom his sinful eyes had ever seen in all his life; and then he secretly hid and
kept one of the dresses. When one of the princesses noticed the outrage, her two
sisters had already gone away and the prince hurriedly ran to her and on his knee
begged her pardon placing at her feet her stolen dresses and at the same time
poured forth the most ardent and tender professions of love.
Pleased by his gentleness and gallant phrases, the princess also fell in love with
him; but she advised him that it would be better for him to go away before her
father would come to know of his intrusion because if he did not do so she would
be converted into another piece of stone for the walls of the enchanted palace in
which they live, in the same way that all the other suitors who aspired for their
hands had been converted into.

On being informed of the adventure of the bold prince the king sent for him. Don
Juan would dare everything for the privilege of seeing his beloved, presented
himself to the king in spite of the princess' warning; and the king greatly
impressed with the youth's tact and self-possession chose to give him to series of
tests both gigantic and impossible of accomplishment by ordinary mortals.

The first was to plant two baskets full of wheat given to him by the king on the top
of the mountain after converting same into a level land, and to prepare on the
following day with the grain they produce the bread for the breakfast of the king
and all his courtiers.

The second was to remove the mountain found in front of the king's palace to a
place behind it, to make way for the cool breezes which he would like to enter his
palace.

The third was to gather in a single day a number of Negroes thrown into the sea,
and to deposit them together in a big bottle. The fourth was for him to construct a
feudal castle in the sea together with its complements of troops and
ammunitions, everything to be ready for the king's inspection on the following
day.

For the fifth and last test the king threw his ring into the ocean and made the
prince recover it from its bottomless depths.
To all these tests Don Juan submitted himself and in all he came out triumphant,
thanks to the talisman which was given him by his beloved Princess Maria who
shared with her father king his power of enchantment.
 The last proved to be most difficult, as in order to look for the royal ring in the
bottomless depths of the ocean, the princess had to allow her body to cut up into
pieces and then thrown into the sea as this was the only way whereby the lost
jewel could be recovered by her for the sake of her beloved prince.

It happened however that when her body was being cut into pieces the end of
one of her fingers was dropped from the aggregate of her flesh and on the
account it not recovered.
But the king, who as may be seen was more obstinate than the legitimate
proverbial Briton, wanted him finally to choose from the three princesses without
seeing their persons except on their finger which would be places through a small
hole in each of their respective rooms.

The princess Dona Maria inserted her cut finger and it was not hard for Don Juan
to pick her out from among the three. At this juncture, the royal monarch
declared himself satisfied; but the princess fearing that her father might resort to
a new trick to foil their happiness ordered the prince to direct himself to the royal
stables in order to take there from the best horse, which was the seventh
counting from the left, and to saddle him and have him ready for them to flee on
that same night.
Unfortunately, the prince made a mistake taking in his hurry the eight instead of
the seventh charger which was the fastest in the whole stable, and when the king
came to know of their flight he himself mounted the seventh and immediately
went in pursuit of the fugitives whom he soon was about to overtake. In this
contingency, the princess in order to save themselves, unfastened and dropped
her hair pins which, on touching the ground, were converted into an extensive
pile of thorns that obliged their tenacious persecutor to a long way around. When
the next time he came in sight close behind them, the princess shook off the
sweat drops on her face and they were converted into a wide mass of impassable
clasp which caused the king to be detained long a second time. For the last time
the princess poured out over the ground a bottle of enchanted water, which was
converted into a big rapidly flowing stream which proved to be an
insurmountable barrier between them and their pursuer.
When at last they found themselves safe and free, it did not take them long
before they could reach the portals of the Berbanian Kingdom.
 But the prince, alleging that he should have such preparations duly made for
entry into the royal palace as are appropriate her category and dignity, left Dona
Maria on the way promising to return for her once he had informed the
committee that was to receive her. Once in the midst of the gay life of the palace
after his triumphant reception by his people, Don Juan soon forgot his professions
of love to Dona Maria. The worst thing about it however was that he became
dazzled by the beauty of Princess Leonora who had been waiting for him during
all the days of his absence that he sought her hand in marriage; while Dona Maria
was impatiently waiting for his return. When she came to know of the infidelity of
Don Juan, the pilgrim princess made use of the talisman which she always carried
with her and adorned with the most beautiful royal garments and carried in a
large coach drawn by eight sorrel-colored horses with four palfreys, she
presented herself at the door of the palace practically inviting herself to the royal
wedding of the Prince Don Juan and the Princess Dona Leonora.

Out of respect for so beautiful a guest from far away foreign lands and on the
occasion of the wedding itself, there were celebrated tournaments, in one of
which Dona Maria succeeded in inserting as one of the number dance of a negrito
and a negrita created from nothing through her marvelous talisman. In the dance
the negrita carried a whip in her hand and with it she pitilessly lashed her negrito
partner, calling him Don Juan while she proceeded to remind of all the
vicissitudes of fortune undergone by him at the side on Dona Maria, the part
which was played by the whipping negrita: the scene of the bath, the different
tests to which he had been subjected by her father, the flight of both that was full
of accidents, and his cruel abandonment of her on the way. Every crack of the
whip which fell on the shoulders of the negrito seemed at the time to the true
Don Juan as it is was lashing his own body and flesh. At the end of the scene, the
prince repentant of his grave offense came down from his throne to implore
pardon from the princess Dona Maria and to offer her his hand, promising to take
her for his wife in the presence of all the people of his Kingdom.

When the king, his father Don Fernando, came to know of the rivalry of the two
princesses, Dona Maria and Dona Leonora, both aspiring to the hand of Don
Juan, he consulted with the archbishop of the kingdom on the case, the church
dignitary deciding in favor of Dona Leonora invoking for her the priority of the
right. But Dona Maria was determined to fight to the last for the prince of her
love and, taking advantage of the power of her talisman, sent all over Barbanina
 Kingdom a big inundation which threatened to carry away the whole nation
together with all its inhabitants.

King Fernando and his subjects trembled in the face of the imminent danger and
all supplicated Princess Dona Leonora to be content with marrying Don Diego,
the brother of Don Juan, which she did for the good of all, occasioning for this
reason a double marriage - an occasion which brought about once more
tranquility and joy to the Berbanian Kingdom.

CHARACTERS
 Ibong Adarna - has a very long fancy tail, with numerous shiny metallic colors. It
knows a total of seven songs that are believed to lull anyone to sleep as well as
cure any type of afflictions. After each song, its plumage becomes more and more
colorful and intense. After the last song, it defecates, then finally, sleeps with its
eyes wide open. When it is sad, it loses its brilliant appearance and looks like an
ordinary bird. Its droppings can turn any living thing to stone and is the basis of
many of the stories about it. The bird also has telepathic attributes depending on
their conditions.

Don Fernando of Berbania – King of Berbania. He has three sons Pedro, Diego
and Juan. He got sick and ordered his sons to search for the Ibong Adarna.

Haring Normalito Tabios - Don Juan's (and brothers) rival in winning the Adarna's
flesh

Haring Normandino Tabios - Haring Normalito's gay brother

Ermitanyo - old hermit (there are 7 in the story)

Maria Blanca - Princess of Reynos de los Cristales, marries Juan

Donya Leonora - Sister of Donya Juana, marries Pedro

Donya Juana - Sister of Donya Leonora, marries Diego

Haring Salermo - Father of Maria Blanca, King of Reynos de los Cristales