In Chapter 12, Poem 10 of Attar's Mokhtar Nameh, the poet addresses the paradoxical resilience of the ego (nafs) against spiritual discipline (riyazat). The poem illustrates that ascetic efforts to weaken the ego can inadvertently strengthen it, as the ego feeds on a 'single lie'—often interpreted as self-deception, hypocrisy, or spiritual pride. This concept emphasizes the difficulty of true self-effacement on the spiritual path, demonstrating how the ego can exploit the very struggle against itself to survive and grow more robust.