It describes the journey of a prince through a series of fantastical scenes in search of a woman he saw in a dream, leading to their union in a rose garden.

[3] His poem takes inspiration from another Sufi romance, the 16th-century Madhumalati written in the Hindawi language by Sayyid Manjhan Shattari Rajgiri.

[5] Deccani romantic literature used many layers of symbolism, involved convoluted plots, and normally centred around a heroic quest that is happily resolved at the end.

Manohar falls in love with Madmalati after seeing her in a dream, and his adventures in search of her take him to fantastical creatures and mythical figures, which are illustrated in the manuscripts' paintings.

[6] Nusrati uses the poem to compliment his patron, listing the virtues of a good ruler and crediting them to Ali Adil Shah II.

[1][5][8] Nusrati's extensive descriptions of nature and landscapes, from bleak settings to paradisiacal gardens, inspired the painters who illustrated manuscripts of the poem.

[4] In 2016 the Philadelphia Museum of Art commissioned Pakistani-American visual artist Shahzia Sikander to create a ten-minute video work, "Disruption as Rapture", that animates images from its manuscript of the Gulshan-i ‘Ishq.