In Chapter 35, Poem 50 of Attar's Mokhtar Nameh, the poet explores the painful gap between the lover's devotion and the Beloved's playful, elusive nature. The central metaphor revolves around the Beloved's tresses (zolf), which traditionally represent the chaotic multiplicity of the material world and the divine veils of mystery.

Although the Beloved allows the lover's bewildered heart a place within these tresses, the heart remains neglected and ignored. The lover cannot even speak of this longing because the Beloved tosses the tresses behind their back—a gesture of sublime indifference and casual disdain that simultaneously conceals the source of the lover's obsession and leaves them in a state of eternal bewilderment.