The Conference of the Birds is an allegory of the soul’s journey to the divine. Written in the 12^th century by the Persian Sufi mystic and poet, Farid ud-Din Attar, the poem tells the story of the birds of the world who gather to inquire about their unknown king. They are met by a hoopoe who proceeds to tell them about their rightful king, the Simorgh, who resides at the peak of mount Kaf, and urges them to journey to his court. Initially, the birds bring up excuses as to why they can’t go on the journey and the hoopoe responds to their hesitations. The birds commit to the journey and ask the hoopoe about its length who describes the seven valleys the birds must traverse in order to reach their destination. A flock of thousands sets off on the journey but ultimately only 30 birds arrive at the court of the Simorgh. The finale of the story rests on a pun: In Persian, Simorgh (Si-morgh) literally means 30 (Si) birds (morgh). The 30 birds (si morgh), gaze into the Simorgh and see a reflection of themselves. This is when we realize the birds’ journey to the Simorgh—the soul’s journey to the divine—had been an internal journey from the beginning.

The valley of love

The flock of birds on this journey:

We would like to dedicate this multimodal journey to Dick Davis, whose beautiful English translation of Attar’s The Conference of the Birds allowed us to explore this wonderful and mysterious poem.