In Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the relationship between Sultan Mahmud and his favored slave Ayaz serves as an allegory for pre-existent spiritual kinship and the futility of worldly envy. When the king's retinue becomes intensely jealous of the extraordinary favor bestowed upon Ayaz, Rumi explains that the bond between the king and his slave transcends earthly merit. He reveals that "before this body," the souls of Mahmud and Ayaz were already joined in the divine realm. Rumi uses this narrative to distinguish between the "first seed" (divine decree and eternal spiritual reality) and the "second seed" (temporal earthly plotting). The courtiers' envious plots are dismissed as mere "wind upon wind" and "corrupt" compared to God's flawless original design. Through Mahmud and Ayaz, Rumi teaches that true spiritual seekers must look past newly created, worldly circumstances to recognize the eternal, pre-creational bonds forged by God.