This is one of the most important friezes in Persepolis. Both figures are on a higher platform than the floor. An official appears before the king. Two incense burners separate the King and the official. Behind Xerxes are two other officials.
Guards appear on both sides of the picture.
Nine ibexes appear on the scabbard. The head of a bull completes the picture. The sword is held in place by a string running around the wearer's leg. This pictorial reconstruction restores, to a degree, not only the skeletal frame but the woodwork and the color that dazzled Darius's visitors. Of special interest are the guarding lions on the two sides of the roof, the parapets, the central position of the winged being, and the stylized frieze in which a lion disables a bull, a reminder of the power of Good over Evil.