In this poem from Attar's Mokhtar Nameh (Chapter 37, Poem 4), a dialogic exchange between the lover and the beloved explores the true nature of devotion and mystical perception.

Key Concepts

• Willing Heart-Surrender: The beloved rejects the lover's claim of having their heart stolen, stating that true mystical love requires a joyful, willing self-surrender rather than a passive or forced loss of heart.
• Fire and Smoke Symbolism: The lover compares the beloved's beautiful face to fire and their facial down (khat) to smoke. The beloved responds that the lover has only perceived the smoke—the outward or superficial signs of beauty and grief—without experiencing the consuming, inner reality of the divine fire of love.