The Nan wa Halwa (Bread and Sweets), a poem about the merits of the ascetic life, was composed in Persian by the Sufi poet Muhammad Baha' al-Din 'Amili (1547–1621). This illustrated version of the text reveals the lively and fertile mixture of Mughal, Rajput, and Deccani painting traditions that coexisted in Aurangabad at the end of the seventeenth century. The manuscript consists of twenty-four folios. Four depict episodes from the poem (in this case, with considerable wit) inside richly painted borders; several of the text folios are illuminated with appealing floral motifs; and one flyleaf bears a striking panel of anthropomorphized calligraphy in the form of a face.