() or simply () was the alleged motto of a prenuptial agreement made by the Spanish Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. During their joint reign they did in fact support each other effectively in accordance with their motto of equality. Still, the wording "" is actually a popular saying invented many centuries later, not the real motto. Besides, and contrary to popular belief, was only the motto of King Ferdinand of Aragon, and never used by Isabella.
The Catholic Monarchs' great sword kept in the Royal Armoury of Madrid, made in the 15th century, was used during the reign of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile and in all solemn court occasions until the 18th century. With this sword, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella knighted Christopher Columbus on his return from his first voyage to America. In the Throne Hall of the Royal Palace in Barcelona, Columbus was named "Admiral of the Ocean" and "Viceroy of the Indies". This ceremonial sword was used as the symbol of the royal power in all religious and political ceremonies starting with the conquest of Granada and the beginning of Spain as a nation. On its hand guard it bears the inscription "" that translates roughly to "As much as the one is worth, so too is the other."
Another version holds that the motto comes from the proverb ("It amounts to the same, cutting as untying"), from the Classical story of the Gordian knot where Alexander the Great, wanting to untie the knot of a sacred yoke at Gordion to fulfill the prophecy of the conquest of Asia, decided to cut it with his sword. Hence it is associated to the yoke in the emblem of the yoke and arrows.
The motto appeared on the Spanish Royal Standard of the Catholic Monarchs from 1492âÂÂ1506. Romantic painters represented it on the Spanish flags that Christopher Columbus brought to the New World, but there is no proof that he actually carried them. Later the motto was changed to which is Latin for "further beyond" referring to Spain and its lands in the Americas.