The Conference of the Birds (Ways of Mysticism)

The Conference of Birds is the most widely known and influential work of Farid Ud-Din Attar, a twelfth-century Persian poet and mystic of the school of Islamic mysticism known as Sufism. The poem starts with the Hoopoe addressing a gathering of birds, urging them to journey to visit his king, Simorgh. Simorgh, he claims, is the ultimate king and ruler of them all.

The subsequent journey is an allegory of the soul's search for unity with the divine. In Sufism the relationship between the seeker and God is similar to that between a lover and the beloved. In this consuming and transcendent love, the distinctions between self and the divine fall away. The stories in The Conference of Birds have captivated generations of readers, inspiring them to take their own spiritual journeys.