This study will explore the sixteenth-century Ottoman court's relationship with the esoteric sciences through its patronage of illustrated works. In 1583 two copies of a compendium of esoteric knowledge intended as gifts for the sultan's daughters were presented to Murad III. The work, Matali al-sa'adet ve menabi' al-siyaset, is a collaboration between a former student of Ebu's-Su'ud Efendi named Muhammad al-Su'udi and the atelier of Ustad 'Osman, the chief court painter. Previous efforts to understand the work have focused on its first section, which represents a presentation of the astrological knowledge contained in Abu Ma'shar's Kitab al-mawalid. While such efforts help situate Matali al-sa'adet in a broader literature, ultimately they remain of limited value, because they focus on the pictorial representations of the signs of the zodiac and ignore the other sections of the work. This study will examine the work as a whole (both textually and pictorially) in an effort to elucidate the broader intellectual movements that informed its creation. One previously overlooked influence is the 'Aja'ib al-makhluqat literature which was initially developed by Zakariya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini in the 13th century and sought to establish the cosmological contours of creation. Both in form and content, Matali' al-sa'adet relies on the intellectual tradition of this genre. In a different, but no less important vein, the study will explore the effects of the fifteenth-century scholar 'Abd al-Rahman al-Bistami on the Ottoman court in the sixteenth century through his efforts to integrate the esoteric sciences. While not officially connected to the Ottoman court in his lifetime, one of his works, Miftah jafr al-jami', which presented divinatory techniques, remained popular within the palace throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. More than yet another example of this influence, the creation of Matali' al-sa'adet highlights a shift in the Ottoman court's relationship with this body of knowledge. In the first half of the sixteenth century copies of Miftah jafr al-jami' and related works were circulated and consumed by scholars and court officials who actively sought to promote this sort of knowledge as crucial for political decision-making at a moment in Ottoman history flush with heightened eschatological expectations. Illustrated works produced in the second half of the century, such as Matali' al-sa'adet, represent a popularization and domestication of this knowledge appropriate to a period informed by a more 'sober' approach to imperial policy.