In Section 17 of the Tuhfat al-Ahrar (from the Haft Awrang), Jami lays out the requisites that make poetry acceptable to discerning temperaments and pleasing to the ear. He likens the true poet to a jeweler mining precious stones, arguing that the gems of the mine are not all of equal value: the poet must scorn the commonplace and relentlessly seek the finest meanings rather than resting content with worthless matter, for whoever is satisfied with trash is himself base. He then binds craft to character, insisting that until the poet empties the heart of bad disposition, no pleasant fragrance can rise from the verse — making moral self-refinement a precondition of poetic excellence.