Pir Dawud is one of the seven holy companions of the central manifestation in Yarsani belief, appointed by Soltan Sahak as the teacher and guide of the disciples. In the sacred Gurani narratives he carries the unmistakable features of an older weather-deity: he is the horseman of the gray courser and the rider of the winds, who at God's command can dissolve into water, seep into the ground, and well up again. The best known episode tells how he calms a sea-storm to save a foundering ship on which the angel Benyamin travels disguised as a dervish. As with the other companions, the spiritual lineage descended from Dawud became one of the foundational houses of the Ahl-e Haqq.