The genizah fragment says that the incident with the wasp occurred in the presence of the calif Omar, before whom Bostanai as a youth of sixteen had brought a dispute with a sheikh, who filled his office during the exilarch's minority, and then refused to give it up. Bostanai was exilarch when Persia fell into the hands of the Arabians, and when Ali came to Babylon Bostanai went to meet him with a splendid retinue, whereby the calif was so greatly pleased that he asked for Bostanai's blessing. The calif, on learning that Bostanai was not married, gave him Dara, the daughter of the Persian king, as wife; and the exilarch was permitted to make her a Jew and to marry her legitimately. She bore him many children, but their legitimacy was assailed after their father's death by the exilarch's other sons ("Ma'aseh Bostanai," several times printed under different titlesSee Benjacob, s.v.). This legend was made known only in the 16th century (compare Isaac Akrish), but the Seder 'Olam Zuṭṭa, composed in the beginning of the 9th century, drew upon the legends of the garden and the wasp (see Mar Zutra II).
