[2] Set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, it describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and the (initially anonymous) Templar, bridge their gaps between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

When Nathan, a wealthy Jew, returns home from business travel, he learns that his foster daughter Recha was saved from a house fire by a young Christian Templar.

Deeply impressed, Saladin immediately understands this parable as a message about the equality of the three major monotheistic religions.

Although the Templar frames his request as a hypothetical case, the fanatical head of the church guesses what this is about and wants to search for "this Jew" immediately and have him burned at the stake for temptation to apostasy.

These connections are revealed to everyone in the final scene at Saladin's palace, which ends with all main characters repeatedly embracing each other in silence.

[4] An older rendition of the Ring Parable and its surrounding narrative involving Saladin and a wealthy Jew can be found in the 73° story of Il Novellino,[5] in the third tale of the first day in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, and in the story Ansalon Giudeo from Bosone da Gubbio's novel Fortunatus Siculus: ossia L'avventuroso Ciciliano.

[9][10][11][12] The character of Nathan is to a large part modeled after Lessing’s lifelong friend, the eminent philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

[20] In the early 21st century, the Ring Parable of Nathan the Wise was taken up again in Peter Sloterdijk's God's Zeal: The Battle of the Three Monotheisms.

[21] Edward Kemp's 2003 version of the play, first produced by the Minerva Theatre, Chichester,[16] was used in 2016 in New York by the Classic Stage Company with F. Murray Abraham in the lead.