a beckoning skeleton

 Edmund Joseph Sullivan's 1913 illustration

Alike for those who for To-day prepare,
And those that after a To-morrow stare,
A Muezzín from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!"

—Omar Khayyam (arranged by Edward Fitzgerald) quatrain 24 of 75 in 1st edition – 1859 

 Omar Khayyám *1048, 1131† was a scholar in many fields. His thousand some Persian quatrains have been selectively translated by many over the last century and an half. Perhaps, there is a Persian scholar out there that could give them a proper Köchel number; and another to translate that opus.

Never anticipate tomorrow's sorrow:
Live always in this paradisal Now—
Fated however soon to house, instead,
With others gone these seven thousand years*:
— Robert Graves 1967 from a forged Persian version by a Sufi scholar as quatrain 21 to be equivalent of the above
*age of the world

 poster by Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse (Stanley George Miller)

This drawing was a partial impetus for the Grateful Dead's garlanded skeleton, Bertha. Now, there is some literature that has earlier presentation of the skulls of Christian martyrs with roses for viewing and veneration. There are many macabre images of skeletons from the time of the black death (post 1347). The Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) was a theme where Death called subjects, both high and low, to dance; for all are united in death.