In Chapter 8, Poem 41 of the Mokhtar Nameh, Attar explains that as long as any trace of the self's subjective dualities—existence and non-existence, joy and sorrow, good and bad—remains, the seeker is barred from the divine presence. The path to becoming an intimate companion behind the veil of love requires the cessation of the personal breath (symbolizing the individual ego). The seeker must achieve a state of spiritual death and absolute silence to transcend the self and attain union with the Divine.