It tells of a woman who passes as a man to free her husband from the Sultan of Hindustan, who had captured him in an assault on their kingdom.

The book, with its theme of gender disguise common to contemporary Javanese and Malay literature, has been read as repositioning the hierarchy of men and women as well as the nobility and servants.

Ultimately Abdul Muluk arrives in Ban, where he falls in love with the sultan's daughter Siti Rafiah.

However, their happiness is short lived: the Sultan of Hindustan attacks without making a declaration of war, intending to avenge the death of his uncle.

After an incident in which he wounds a slave, Abdul Ghani is brought before the Sultan of Ban, who realises that the boy is his grandson.

Raja Ali Haji, a Buginese-Malay writer based in Riau, is credited by Philippus Pieter Roorda van Eysinga; Raja Ali Haji had declared himself to be the author in a letter to Roorda van Eysinga, which included the manuscript which was later published.

Another candidate is Raja Ali Haji's sister Saleha (also spelled Zaleha and Salihat), whom Hermann von de Wall credited with authorship in a now-lost manuscript catalogued by van den Berg.

[2] The literary scholar Monique Zaini-Lajoubert notes that Syair Abdul Muluk shows that women can play a powerful role.

[3] Barbara Watson Andaya likewise notes a feminist theme, although in some cases – such as polygamy – the contents do not diverge from society's expectations.

[10] Syair Abdul Muluk has been considered the source material for Lie Kim Hok's 1884 work Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari, published in Batavia.

The similarities in plot were first put forth by Tio Ie Soei in a 1923 editorial, then followed by a polemic in various local Chinese media.