Attar of Nishapur

Farid ud-Din Attar was a Persian Sufi poet and philosopher whose Conference of the Birds—an allegory of the soul's journey toward God—is one of the masterpieces of Persian literature and Sufi philosophy. A pharmacist by trade, he was said to have met the young Rumi and given him a copy of his work, and his influence on Rumi and the whole tradition of Persian mystical poetry is incalculable.

In the Conference of the Birds, thirty birds set out to find the mythical Simorgh (their king), led by the hoopoe as spiritual guide. The journey dramatises the stages of the Sufi path, culminating in the annihilation of the self in divine unity—the birds discover that they themselves are the Simorgh (si morgh meaning "thirty birds"). The poem synthesises Sufi metaphysics with narrative poetry of extraordinary depth, exploring the soul's passage through the seven valleys of spiritual development.