# The Preposterous Puzzle

In text form:

ONGOKEAU
TTFDNQAN
ITHZTEEC
HLTIEZST
RUINKTLU
EHSLSIEH
TUSNOTPO
EUIOOSGD


The word preposterous traces to the roots prae (before) and posterous (subsequent).

The modern usage of this word conveys an absurdity, but it was originally meant more precisely to convey something that is out of order... taking something that should be subsequent and putting it before. (Maybe you can suggest a more modern way of conveying this idea, but let's just go with this for now).

It is in this sense that this puzzle is preposterous, because the answer tells you how to find the solution to this puzzle.

• FYI, lateral thinking only applies if the intended solution bypasses logic. – Quintec Mar 11 '18 at 22:07
• @thecoder16 According to the tag description, I'm pretty sure it applies to this puzzle. – H Walters Mar 11 '18 at 22:18
• Are you absolutely certain there isn't a typo on the 6th line? I'd really like an S as the fourth letter there. – Bass Mar 11 '18 at 22:37
• @Bass No typo; the S's on the sixth line are precisely where they need to be. – H Walters Mar 11 '18 at 22:41
• @HWalters "involving ideas that may not be obtainable only using logic" this is the important part of the description, not just the creative part. – Quintec Mar 11 '18 at 22:53

The letter distribution looks similar to English, so it's probably a transposition cipher. The grid is a 8x8 square, which sounds familiar. Let's see if we can't find a famous order in that same famous order..

Well, "Knight's tour" wasn't there. Picking letters like a chess knight moves seems to work though, knight can be found, as can queen

I'll post this as partial while I try to work out the rest.

UPDATE: Got it. The message is:

Using the queen's knight, take a closed tour to find the solution to this puzzle .

Following the message's instructions:

• Oh, there's more? Yay! – Bass Mar 12 '18 at 0:05
• @Bass "the queen's knight" suggests starting at B1/B8 (if this were a chessboard) – Quintec Mar 12 '18 at 0:06
• So I should start the sentence at "Nd the solution using"? :-) I'll update the answer in a minute. (Yoda might think about viewing this board from black's perspective: a closed tour... , take.) – Bass Mar 12 '18 at 0:08
• @Bass No, if you start from B1 doesn't it say "Using the queen's knight, take a closed tour to find the solution"? – Quintec Mar 12 '18 at 0:18
• @thecoder16, in Internet parlance, the colon-dash-closing paren combination indicates well-meaning, jocular intent. :-) – Bass Mar 12 '18 at 0:21