In Chapter 30, Poem 25 of Attar's Mokhtar Nameh, the poet expresses the lover's profound despair through two poignant metaphors: being "like a ring upon the door" (چو حلقه بر در) and having "dust on the head" (خاک بر سر).

The door ring represents a state of perpetual waiting and fixation; the lover is attached to the beloved's threshold but ultimately excluded from entering. Placing dust upon one's head is a traditional Persian symbol of mourning, ruin, and utter helplessness. Together, these images emphasize the lover's miserable, paralyzed condition in stark contrast to the beloved, who is described as being completely unbothered and "fully absorbed in affairs."