The beginning of the story is in the city of Shahr-i Sabz, where Taraghāi Bahādur brought his son as he was entering his thirteenth year in “the Year of the Mouse,” presumably to receive guidance and instruction from a Sufi master, Shaykh Shams Kulal. The precise reasons for the move are left out of the story. This is Tīmūr's first direct encounter with Sufis, and as we have seen previously, such encounters also tended to be accompanied by trials and tests. Evidently, Tīmūr is able to pass his first test, and the evaluation by the Sufis enables him to continue on his path to becoming the ruler of the world. The text makes it abundantly clear that Tīmūr is not tested with the aim of becoming a Sufi, but rather to see whether he could perform as a just and able king.

Following his mentor's death, and at his advice, Tīmūr – alone, poor, and hungry – travels to Bukhara. A series of encounters with different people in Bukhara who represent almost every stratum of society, from ordinary folk to the khan's son and heir, reveal to Tīmūr that the city is in disorder, that fear and corruption rule the day, and that governmental, judicial, and bureaucratic mechanisms have become useless and unreliable. Hope lives only outside the official channels, with several unexpected individuals whom the youth befriends.