In this parable from Farid al-Din Attar's Mosibat Nameh, the vizier Nizam al-Mulk encounters a sleeping mystic under a bridge. When Nizam al-Mulk notes the mystic's peaceful state, the mystic warns that worldly power and spiritual devotion are mutually exclusive, using the metaphor of two swords in a single sheath. This allegory teaches the Sufi concept of renouncing worldly status to achieve spiritual realization.