In classical Persian love and Sufi poetry, the beloved's dark tresses (زلف) are conventionally compared to a 'Hindu' (هندو). This metaphor relies on several traditional associations:

1. Color (Blackness): The term 'Hindu' was poetically associated with darkness, matching the pitch-black color of the beloved's hair.
2. Soul-Plundering and Mercilessness: The beloved's hair is described as a thief or plunderer of the lover's soul. In Poem 47 of the Mokhtar Nameh, Attar explicitly connects these concepts, stating that the tresses are 'merciless because they fell as a Hindu' and 'from plundering the soul'.
3. Infidelity (Kufr): The dark tresses represent multiplicity, concealment, and the 'infidel' forces that captivate the lover, drawing them away from orthodoxy. This is semantically linked to other infidel-associated metaphors like the zunnar (belt) found in related poems.