Islamic, Turkic, and Mongol traditions stressed the symbolic association of the lion and royalty in the lion and sun motif.
According to Najmabadi, occasionally we come across the lion and sun with a sword in the lion's paw and with a crown during this period.
In seeking the Safavi interpretation of the lion and sun motif, Shahbazi suggests that the Safavids had reinterpreted the lion as symbolizing Imam ʿAlī and the sun as typifying the "glory of religion", a substitute for the ancient farr-e dīn.
In the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of 1906, the lion and sun motif in the flag of Iran was described as a passant lion that holds a saber in its paw and with the sun in its background.
One of the popular forms of the lion is explicitly heraldic form, including in the Persian coat of arms (the lion and sun); the animal in the coat of arms of the Mamluk Baybars and perhaps also in that of the Rum Saldjukids of the name of Kilidi Arslan; and in numismatic representations.
Above his bed was a homemade poster that included both the Islamic Republic's Allah symbol and the Shah's lion and sun.
The Seljuqs of Asia Minor (12th 13th century) had silver coins showing a horseman with a mace over his shoulders, or a lion and sun.
