Not to be contentious, but in the mind of a mathematician, the beauty of equations most certainly transcends the phenomena defined.
That a natural phenomena can be perfectly described by mathematics is magnificent. That humans can fathom such equations is even more magnificent and thereby transcendent.
Beholding an equation that explains a vast physical phenomenon is akin to seeing a Van Gogh painting of a field of wheat.
Van Gogh's interpretation in the abstract is matched by reality's abstraction (and our eyes' translation) of a natural phenomenon compared to the mathematical purity of the equation which defines it.
One must open his mind to beauty to see the artistry of mathematics. It is not for accountants and pedestrian humans.
It can be seen only by lovers of art. And those who do not love art cannot behold its loveliness (and rightly so).
I think to a mathematician, math itself is a "city in clouds" which has an attraction not dependent on anything outside itself. It's entirely abstract. They don't call it "pure mathematics" for nuthin' !