In the poetry of Farid al-Din Attar, the archetype of the 'wise madman' (دیوانه, divaneh or مجنون, majnun) frequently serves as a mouthpiece for profound spiritual truths. Because the madman is detached from societal norms, worldly ambitions, and conventional rationality, he is uniquely positioned to perceive and articulate the illusory nature of the material world.

Attar uses this figure repeatedly across his works—such as in Asrar Nameh, Mantiq al-Tayr, and Elahi Nameh—to deconstruct the reality of worldly existence. By having the madman compare the world to ephemeral phenomena like soap bubbles, drops of water, or colored wax, Attar emphasizes the Sufi perspective that the material realm is fundamentally transient (fana) and that true reality belongs only to the Divine.