The author's attitude to magic is ambiguous. The Fairy Queen, King Gadifer's wife, uses her skills in magic to manifestly good ends: she gives her son, young Gadifer, a magic ring that enables him to see through any illusion; and her knowledge of what the stars and planets predestine helps her to save her sons from wounds they deal each other with their lances. Magic – acquiring and using knowledge of nature's workings – is not, the author implies, in itself a bad thing; but what is to be avoided, he says, is for a ‘magician’ to become adept and imagine he's therefore godlike. In the following episode, young Gadifer has responded to a plea by a maiden named Pierote to undertake a mysterious mission; it leads him to encounter the enchanter Aroés, who has set himself up as God of the Sheer Mountain.