The most important of his works are his lyric, teaching hymns (, "madrāšê"). These hymns are full of rich, poetic imagery drawn from biblical sources, folk tradition, and other religions and philosophies. The madrāšê are written in stanzas of syllabic verse and employ over fifty different metrical schemes. Each madrāšâ had its "qālâ" (), a traditional tune identified by its opening line. All of these qālê are now lost. It seems that Bardaisan and Mani composed madrāšê, and Ephrem felt that the medium was a suitable tool to use against their claims. The madrāšê are gathered into various hymn cycles. Each group has a title — "Carmina Nisibena", "On Faith", "On Paradise", "On Virginity", "Against Heresies" — but some of these titles do not do justice to the entirety of the collection (for instance, only the first half of the "Carmina Nisibena" is about Nisibis). Each madrāšâ usually had a refrain (, "‘ûnîṯâ"), which was repeated after each stanza. Later writers have suggested that the madrāšê were sung by all-women choirs with an accompanying lyre.