iopanosiris:

CALLIGRAPHIC TABLEAU WITH LION AND DRAGON; Turkey, dated 121011/1795-96 CE.

“In the tableau here, which comes from a Turkish Bektashi-dervish lodge, a Persian couplet by the poet Farid ud-Din ‘Attar (d. 1220) has been calligraphed into the figure of a lion who kills the lower self in the form of a dragon. This depiction thus reflects the core idea of Sufism, namely that the lower animal soul (nafs) embodied by the dragon, i.e. the ego of the mystic, is annihilated.”

via islamic-arts.org