In discussions of the genre boundaries of classical tafsir, Jane Dammen McAuliffe describes al-Zamakhshari (d 538/1144) as one of the most frequently cited sources in the Sunni tafsir tradition (McAuliffe 2003, 445). Al-Zamakhshari’s commentary on the Qur’an remains one of the most glossed upon tafsirs in Islamic history and has a prominent place in medieval Islamic curriculums (Saleh 2013, 218). Al-Zamakhshari’s Kashshaf in many ways represents classical tafsir according to Norman Calder’s definition: he comments upon the whole of the Qur’an in segments, offering glosses that employ ‘ulum al-Qur’an as a measure including linguistic analysis, and citing previous authorities (Calder 1993, 103). Despite being extensively commented upon, one story from al-Zamakhshari’s tafsir is regularly excised from ensuing tafsir literature: the story of the blinded clever man. Surprisingly, the story is revived and expanded upon in Jalal al-Din Rumi’s (d. 671/1273) Mathnawi-i Ma’nawi. The Mathnawi represents for many the height of classical Persian Sufi poetry. It sometimes makes use of the Qur’an as proof-text but is not often considered a work of tafsir in itself (Mojaddedi 2017, 435). Some scholars have described the Mathnawi, not as tafsir, but as “the Qur’an in Persian,” indicating its Qur’anic overtones but highlighting its departure from the text of the Qur’an (Mojaddedi 2017, 432). While distinct from classical modes of tafsir, Rumi’s Mathnawi converges with al-Zamakhshari’s Kashshaf in key ways that are useful to studies of genre boundaries in tafsir studies. Using the story of the blinded clever man as a case study, this paper offers a critical analysis of the reception history of al-Zamakhshari’s tafsir of Surat al-Mulk. Following the reception history of this particular tale helps us trace the contours of diverging Arabic and Persian genealogies of tafsir, while offering opportunities to emphasize where the two traditions may have converged.