Robert Farris Thompson's Flash of the Spirit (1983) documents the ade as a conical or cylindrical crown built up from densely worked glass beadwork, frequently finished with a beaded fringe that veils the wearer's face, and topped with a small bird figure, a recurring element across different regional styles of Yoruba royal beadwork. The crown is restricted to obas, kings formally installed within the Yoruba tradition of sacred kingship, a system that traces legitimacy back through royal lineages to Oduduwa, the legendary founding ancestor associated with the city of Ile-Ife, itself held to be the origin point of Yoruba civilization in Yoruba tradition.
The ade is sharply distinguished in status from the regalia of chiefs who are not obas: only a properly installed king within a recognized royal lineage may wear one, and its beadwork, materials and iconography mark that distinction visually as well as ritually.
The specific bead colors, patterns and figurative elements used on a given ade often encode references to the particular orisha associated with that royal lineage or with the town's foundation narrative, so that a trained viewer can read genealogical and religious information directly from a crown's design, a visual literacy Thompson documents extensively among Yoruba art historians and elder informants.