So the position of Chief Gardener who doubled as an executioner for the Ottoman court was a real (and terrifying) thing and, from my readings, the stories about the colored sherbert and the race to the gate are all real and true. As for a gardener-executioner named Souflikar who was said to be active during the reign of Mehmed IV...all I could find were not terribly scholarly sources such as "5 People Who Died During Sex: and 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists." You'd think the State Archives listing all the executioners' names would have been digitized by now, but nope.