Both Attar's 'Tale of Mahsati and Sultan Sanjar' and Sanai's 'Tale of the King and the Handmaiden' use the motif of a powerful monarch infatuated with a servant to explore the conflict between worldly power and spiritual self-mastery. While Attar portrays Sultan Sanjar as utterly consumed by his desire for a cupbearer, demonstrating how easily earthly kings succumb to internal enslavement, Sanai's narrative features a king who dramatically drowns his handmaiden to sever the bonds of lust (hawa). Comparing these two didactic allegories highlights the shared Sufi doctrine that true sovereignty requires mastery over the ego, and that succumbing to physical passions strips a ruler of his spiritual authority.