Bathing was a traditional pastime for Sufis, and for Rūmī, in various stories and poems, the bath served as a metaphor for spiritual purification. Many scenes, therefore, were set within bathhouses. Here Rūmī sits by himself in one of the two pools set within the arched recess to cure a cold caused by "contact with the vain people." Elsewhere, and with a certain amount of humor, various bathhouse activities are depicted. This miniature is part of a sixteenth-century manuscript account of the life and miracles of the Persian poet and mystic known as Rūmī.