The Conference of the Birds
The epic poem The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq at-Tayr) describes a journey where thirty birds of the world, led by the wise Hoopoe, set out to find the mysterious Simurgh, the legendary “King of the Birds.” One of the most beautiful and profound passages from Farid ud-Din Attar’s masterpiece is this excerpt which describes the moment the birds (representing human souls) realize that the Divine is not found “out there,” but is a mirror of their own inner transformation.
The Reflection in the Mirror
By Farid ud-Din Attar
“The sun of majesty sent forth his rays,
And in those beams a hundred worlds were born.
But when the birds looked at the Simurgh’s face,
They saw themselves-the thirty birds were He!
And when they looked at their own selves, they saw
That they were He, the Simurgh of the world.
They looked at both, and saw that both were one;
No ‘I’ or ‘Thou’ remained, the path was done.
A voice then echoed through the silent hall:
‘You came as thirty, and you saw the Thirty.
Had you been forty, forty you’d have seen.
For here, the seeker is the sought;
The mirror and the face are but one thought.'”
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The Literal Meaning: A Linguistic Pun
The name “Simurgh” contains the central secret of the poem. In Persian:
• Si means “thirty.”
• Murgh means “birds.”