But a much greater import is attached to this name in the doctrine of the Sufis: with them this bird is nothing less than the emblem of the supreme Being, to be sought with the utmost effort and perseverance through innumerable difficulties which obstruct the road to his mysterious seat. This idea was ingeniously allegorized in the famous poem entitled _Mantek al tair_, “the colloquy of the birds,” composed by _Ferid-eddin Attar_, a Persian poet, who was born in Kerken, a village near Nishapúr, in the year of the Hejira 513 (A. D. 1119), and lived 110, 112, or 115 years, having died in A. H. 627, 629, or 632 (A. D. 1229, 1231, or 1234). In this composition, the birds, emblems of souls, assemble under the conduct of a hoop (_upapa_), their king, in order to be presented to Simurgh. To attain his residence, seven valleys are to be traversed; these are: 1. the valley of research; 2. that of love; 3. that of knowledge; 4. of sufficiency (competence); 5. of unity; 6. of stupefaction; and 7. that of poverty and annihilation, beyond which nobody can proceed; every one finds himself attracted without being able to advance. These are evidently as many gradations of contemplative life, and austere virtue, each of which is described in glowing terms, for which scarce an equivalent is to be found in European languages. The birds, having attained the residence of Simurgh, were at first ordered back by the usher of the royal court, but, as they persevered in their desire, the violence of their grief met with pity. Admitted to the presence of Simurgh, they heard the register of their faults committed towards him read to them, and, sunk in confusion, were annihilated. But this annihilation purified them from all terrestrial elements; they received a new life from the light of majesty; in a new sort of stupefaction, all they had committed during former existence was cancelled, and disappeared from their hearts; the sun of approximation consumed, but a ray of this light revived them. Then they perceived the face of Simurgh: “When they threw a clandestine look upon him, they saw thirty birds in him, and when they turned their eyes to themselves, the thirty birds appeared one Simurgh: they saw in themselves the entire Simurgh; they saw in Simurgh the thirty birds entirely.” They remained absorbed in this reflection. Having then asked the solution of the problem _We_ and _Thou_, that is, the problem of apparent identity of the divinity and his adorers, they received it, and were for ever annihilated in Simurgh: the shade vanished in the sun.――(See _Notices et Extraits des MSS._, vol. XII. pp. 306-312).