In Section 5 of Chapter 17 of Attar's Mosibat Nameh, the story of a sage passing by a dunghill and a graveyard serves as an allegory for the transience of worldly pleasure and the arrogance of the carnal soul (nafs).

Key Themes

• The Decay of Blessings and Eaters: The dunghill represents what remains of worldly blessings (ni'mat), while the graveyard represents what remains of those who consumed them (ni'mat-khwaran).
• The Arrogance of the Ego: The poem contrasts the impurity of the carnal soul—the source of all worldly corruption—with its prideful tendency to claim divinity, a trait epitomized by Pharaoh.