The first contract between Meyerbeer and Scribe for the writing of the libretto was signed in May 1837. The starting point for the story was "Le Mancenillier", a poem by Charles Hubert Millevoye, in which a girl sits under a tree releasing poisonous vapors but is saved by her lover. The plot is also based on an unidentified German tale and a 1770 play by Antoine Lemierre, "La Veuve de Malabar", in which a Hindu maiden loves a Portuguese navigator, a theme already treated by the composer Louis Spohr in his opera "Jessonda".