The Conference of the Birds

All the birds of the world set out to find their hidden king-and discover something they never expected. Led by the wise hoopoe, the birds of the world set off across seven perilous valleys-Quest, Love, Knowledge, Detachment, Unity, Bewilderment, and Annihilation-in search of the Simurgh, the mysterious king they have never seen. One by one they make their excuses and fall away; and those few who complete the journey find at its end a truth that has made this poem the best-loved allegory of Sufi mysticism. Farid ud-Din Attar wrote his Conference of the Birds in twelfth-century Persia; this English version is Edward FitzGerald's Bird-Parliament, by the translator of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. This Lightbound Library edition presents it behind an original painting by Jessica von Braun, published by Solocosmo Press.