The 16 court cards, a Page, Knight, Queen, and King in each suit, usually stand for people, personalities, or a way of being you are growing into. The rank sets the maturity and stance, and the suit sets the flavour. Here is what each rank means, and the four cards that carry it.
The student and the messenger. Curiosity, a beginner's openness, news arriving, the first stirrings of the suit's energy.
Action and pursuit. Each Knight takes its suit to an extreme and carries it out into the world, for better or worse.
Inward mastery. The Queen holds her suit's energy deeply and from within, nurturing and understanding it rather than broadcasting it.
Outward mastery. The King directs his suit's power into the world with authority and steadiness, the energy fully grown up.
The 16 court cards, the Page, Knight, Queen, and King of each suit, most often represent people or personalities, or a way of being you are stepping into. The rank sets the maturity and stance; the suit sets the flavour. A Queen of Cups is emotional depth held from within; a Knight of Swords is thought charging into action.
Sixteen: a Page, Knight, Queen, and King in each of the four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles). They make up part of the 56-card Minor Arcana.
Sometimes. A court card can point to a specific person in your life, to a side of yourself, or to a quality the situation is asking you to embody. Read it as reflection, not as a fixed identity: ask who this reminds you of, or where you could bring this stance.
Both are masters of their suit, but they hold it differently. The Queen embodies the energy inwardly, understanding and nurturing it; the King expresses it outwardly, with authority and direction. Neither outranks the other as a way of reading.