In Farid al-Din Attar's The Conference of the Birds, the tale of the ascetic during the time of Moses uses the ascetic's beard as a symbol of self-absorption and the ego (nafs). Although the ascetic devotes his days and nights to worship, he experiences no spiritual joy. God reveals to Moses that the ascetic remains distant from divine union because he is constantly occupied with grooming his beard. The beard represents a superficial attachment to one's own outward piety and spiritual self-image. Attar demonstrates that as long as a seeker remains preoccupied with themselves, even in the context of religious devotion, they create a veil that prevents true connection with the Divine.