Zulf

A lock or tress of hair; the curling hair of the beloved.

Literally: lock of hair, tresses, curl

Zulf is the curling lock of the beloved's hair — the great snare of the ghazal, in whose coils the lover's heart is bound and happily imprisoned. Its darkness is the lover's night, its winding the maze in which reason loses its way. As a symbol the zulf is kufr and confusion and the dark veil of the world, set against the luminous face (rukh) it shadows — multiplicity curling across the brightness of the One.