The Conference of the Birds

“Abandon such self-love and you will see/The Way that leads us to Reality.” 

This couplet introduces a major theme of the poem: abandoning the Self will lead to a truer reality. The Way is the Sufi Way and reality is capitalized to indicate it is the reality of God, and not an earthly reality. Appearing in the introduction to the different species of birds present at the conference, this couplet embodies the most consistent theme throughout the poem. 

Then, as you burn, whatever pain you feel/ Remember God will recompense your zeal;/ When you perceive His hidden secrets, give/Your life to God’s affairs and truly live— / At least, made perfect in Reality,/ You will be gone, and only God will be.” 

Attar uses fire and burning as metaphors for religious exaltation. The sacrifice of Sufism is painful, but will be redeemed in the afterlife. This also references the dissolution of the Self into the divine. 

The Simorgh lives, the sovereign whom you seek,/ And He is always near to us, though we/ Live far from His transcendent majesty./ A hundred thousand veils of dark and light/Withdraw His presence from our mortal sight,/And in both words no being shares the throne/ That marks the Simorgh’s power and His alone” 

This is the first reference to the Simorgh and presents a paradox that is fulfilled at the end of the poem: he is always near to us and yet we are far away from him. This establishes that the birds are far away from the Simorgh spiritually, rather than physically, and must go on an inward journey.