“To care for souls and move them should be left to true philosophers and orators”, writes Francesco Petrarca (d. 1374) in one of his epistles. This assertion of the link between truth (philosophy) and poetry (rhetoric) draws from a long-standing concept, discussed by thinkers as varied as Plato, Cicero, al-Farabi, and Ibn Sina, that perceives temporal beauty (Gr. ‘kalos’, Ar. ‘jamal’) as a manifestation and proof of the eternal and sublime Good (‘tò kalon’, ‘jalal’). For poetry to perform its proper function of inspiration, elevation, and guidance, it must be grounded in truth; the harmonious sounds and structures of poetry informed by this truth will mimic the beauty of God’s creation and point to the majesty of God himself. The poet’s position in this scheme is essentially that of a moral philosopher, using his poetry (‘shi`r’) to inspire his audience and orient them along the path of righteousness (‘shar`’), whose underlying truth is demonstrated and substantiated by the beauty of the poem itself. Well-known for its dense interplay of structure and meaning, the Haft Paykar of Nizami Ganjavi (d. 1207) is a first-class example of this conception of poetry, “in which the various ‘levels’ of creation are parallel and analogous and exist in harmony with one another” (Meisami, “Medieval Persian Court Poetry”, 32). Each story is a colorful microcosm, with characters at their full range of dramatic potential and psychological depth (Chelkowsi), embedded in a frame tale that sets it in dialogue with its neighbors as a component of a unified moral-metaphysical system at the macrocosmic level (Krotkoff). This paper seeks to explore how this triangular dialogue between stories and frame may act as a commentary on itself, a meta-voice that fulfills the poetic injunction of moral guidance. Such a moment occurs at the structural center of the Haft Paykar, in which the stories of the Blue, Red, and Turquoise Domes, when read in relation to each other and the frame tale, reveal a vital distinction between three kinds of knowledge: empirical, religious, and esoteric. With knowledge and its interpretation at the literal heart of the story, this distinction suggests a method for reading the work as a whole and comprehending the truth within it. Thus, not only does the frame tale inform our interpretation of the individual stories, but the resulting intra-textual dialogue may guide our interpretation of the frame tale.