And the King said, "Bring him to me; I will appoint him exclusively for myself." And when he spoke to him, he said, "Indeed, you are today established [in position] and trusted." [Joseph] said, "Appoint me over the storehouses of the land. Indeed, I will be a knowing guardian." And thus We established Joseph in the land to settle therein wherever he willed. We touch with Our mercy whom We will, and We do not allow to be lost the reward of those who do good. {Sūrat Yūsuf v. 54-56} Verses 54-56 of Sūra 12 mark the turning point where the prophet Yūsuf, brought low and held captive in numerous ways by those lesser than him, begins the meteoric rise to power and prophethood presaged by his dream in which the heavenly bodies themselves prostrate to him. The actors in these critical three lines are limited to a matching number of entities--Allah, the Prophet, and the King—and the verses revolve on the axis of kingship, divinely appointed authority, and the divine itself. These three forces are portrayed as synergistic and complementary: the King exercises his power to appoint, but is given the imperative and instructions by the Prophet, forming an actual and symbolic nexus under God’s approval. It is clear that the sanguine portrayal of the king, al-malik, in Sūrat Yūsuf offers a sharp contrast to descriptions in interspersed verses of the Qurʾān of Pharoah, Fir’awn, the Egyptian monarch who exemplifies despotic corrupt power, appearing to enjoy unlimited strength but ultimately humbled and destroyed. This paper will reveal how medieval exegetes of the Qurʾān represented concepts of kingship in theological terms, focusing in particular on their comments on al-malik, Fir’awn, kingly authority in relation to moral and practical law and relationships between ruler and ruled. Exegetical comments on the three cited verses from Sūrat Yūsuf and select appropriate verses from Sūrat Yūnus will be discussed, and will demonstrate how theological writings on the issue of mulk and khilāfa complicate the generally clear cut dichotomy found in medieval political treatises.