Interestingly, in English the lion is sometimes called "king of the jungle". The word jungle derives from the Sanskrit jangala, meaning uncultivated land. The same word is also in Persian, where it refers to wild tropical vegetation. There is also a saying in Persian, "When the lion is happy, all of the animals in the jungle are happy." The Asiatic lion once ranged right across Iran and the Middle East all the way to india.
Bonus fact: the Asiatic cheetah is a subspecies of cheetah that lives in Iran. They are very endangered and the last survivors of a population of cheetahs that once roamed over a vast territory.