In this allegory from Attar's Mosibat Nameh, a dervish asks Ali (Haidar) to define poverty, sickness, and death. Ali provides a spiritual reinterpretation of these states:

• Poverty (Dervishi): Defined as ignorance (jahal). If a dervish is a scholar, their poverty is easily borne.
• Sickness: Defined as the spiritual affliction of envy (hasad).
• Death: Defined as the manifestation of bad character or ill temper (bad khoo'i).

This teaching shifts the learner's focus from physical or material conditions to the ethical and spiritual state of the soul.