Both Farid al-Din Attar in 'The Conference of the Birds' and Jalaluddin Rumi in the 'Masnavi' (in the story of the falcon and the ducks) use the duck's attachment to water as an allegory for spiritual stagnation. In Attar's work, the duck refuses the spiritual journey because it equates water with external ritual purity, mistaking formal cleanliness for inner transformation. In Rumi's allegory, the ducks refuse to follow the falcon to the spiritual plains because they view the water as an impenetrable fortress of worldly safety. Both poets use the duck to illustrate how fixations on familiar, limited states—whether religious formalism or material comfort—hinder the seeker from answering the call of the spiritual guide and pursuing the boundless Divine.