In Farid al-Din Attar's The Conference of the Birds (Manteq al-Tayr), the tale of an exquisitely beautiful king who executes anyone who looks at him or speaks his name serves as a stark allegory for the inaccessible and overwhelming nature of the Divine. In Sufi mysticism, the king represents the Absolute, whose transcendent majesty (Jalal) is too immense for mortal comprehension. The harsh punishments for glancing at the king's veil or uttering his name symbolize the impossibility of grasping God through ordinary senses, intellect, or language. Furthermore, the lovers who willingly sacrifice their lives just for a chance to perceive the king illustrate the concept of fana (spiritual annihilation). This demonstrates that true devotion to the Divine requires the ultimate surrender of the ego and self, as approaching the Absolute results in the burning away of mortal existence.