The two messianic typologies of “king” and “servant” play an important role in the traditional portrait of the Prophet Muhammad, but their mutual relationship is problematic. The potential conflict between these two typologies is epitomized by a hadith according to which Muhammad was once summoned to choose whether he wanted to be a “prophet king” or a “prophet servant”. Like the narrative of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, this hadith mirrors a debate on the nature and function of the community’s founder that has left its traces in the earliest Islamic sources. This paper examines a few variants of this exemplary narrative in order to emphasize its shifting meanings in different contexts and kinds of sources.