The Canon / Foundational / Sufism
Foundational · Medieval Persia
The Conference of the Birds
Sufi Mysticism (poetry)The Conference of the Birds is the masterwork of the Persian Sufi poet Farid al-Din Attar, an allegory in which the birds of the world set out in search of their king, the mythical Simurgh, led by the hoopoe.
Their journey across seven valleys — Quest, Love, Knowledge, Detachment, Unity, Bewilderment, and Poverty-and-Annihilation — maps the stages of the mystical path, each valley shedding another layer of the self. When at last thirty birds reach the goal, they find only their own reflection: si murgh, "thirty birds," discovering that the sought-for divine was their own deepest identity.
One of the summits of Sufi literature, it renders the doctrine of annihilation in God (fana) as an unforgettable parable of the self's dissolution into its source.
Practices it teaches
Remembrance of the Beloved — Longing-Driven Dhikr (ʿAṭṭār)
Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār — the 12th-century Persian poet of The Conference of the Birds (Manṭiq al-Ṭayr) — assumes the universal Sufi practice of dhikr, the remembrance of God through repetition of the divine Name…
The Valley of Love — Kindling Longing for the Beloved (ʿAṭṭār)
For ʿAṭṭār, love (ʿishq) is not one virtue among many — it is the fuel of the whole journey. In The Conference of the Birds the birds do not reach the Simurgh by discipline alone; they are drawn, by an ache that…
Locating Your Valley — The Seven Stages as a Map of Self-Examination (ʿAṭṭār)
In The Conference of the Birds, ʿAṭṭār's hoopoe tells the assembled birds that the road to the Simurgh crosses seven valleys, each harder than the last: 1.
Fanāʾ — Annihilation of the Self in the Beloved (ʿAṭṭār)
ʿAṭṭār brings The Conference of the Birds to its climax with one of the great images in mystical literature. After crossing all seven valleys, only thirty birds survive to reach the Simurgh — and there they…
Lineage
The author
Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭārSeven valleys of the soul Full voice →Kindred books