In Attar's Mokhtar Nameh, the rose frequently employs martial imagery, such as a shield (سپر), to express its resistance against degradation and the inevitability of death. In Poem 23, the rose boasts of wielding a 'shield of intoxication', which the bud mocks as useless. This metaphorical shield represents the futility of worldly defenses against spiritual trials or the harsh reality of the rosewater-maker, a motif that continues to evolve in other quatrains like Poems 20 and 28 where the shield is ultimately surrendered or proven ineffective.