Conference of the Birds — Mantiq ut-Tayr

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Mantiq ut-Tayr ("Conference of the Birds" or "Speech of the Birds") is a Persian mystical poem by Farid ud-Din Attar of Nishapur (c. 1145–1221), one of the great Sufi poets and a major influence on Rumi (who was born the year before Attar died, and whom tradition holds to have been blessed by Attar as a child). The poem is an allegory of the Sufi path. The birds of the world assemble to seek their true king, the mythical Simurgh, who dwells in a distant mountain. The Hoopoe (the bird whom the Quran identifies as Solomon's messenger to the Queen of Sheba) is their guide. Each bird offers reasons why he cannot go — attachments to worldly things, false satisfactions, self-love — and each is answered by the Hoopoe. Those who persist must cross seven valleys: Quest, Love, Knowledge, Detachment, Unity, Wonderment, and Poverty-and-Annihilation. Thousands die on the way, thousands turn back. Only thirty birds reach the mountain. The final revelation turns on a Persian pun: Si-morgh means "Thirty birds." The King they sought was themselves — but themselves as they had become after the journey, not as they had been before. The self that arrives is not the self that set out. This is one of the most influential Sufi allegories and a foundational text of Persian literature. Translation: Edward FitzGerald, "The Bird-Parliament" (unfinished, published posthumously), a free rendering into English verse from Attar's Persian, London: Macmillan, 1889 (posthumous). Public domain.

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