The Conference of the Birds: Attar’s Story, the Seven Valleys and the Simorgh

The Conference of the Birds is a 12th-century Persian poem by Attar of Nishapur, called منطق‌الطیر (manteq-ot-teyr) in Persian. The birds of the world set out, led by the hoopoe, to find their king, the Simorgh. After crossing seven valleys only thirty birds arrive, and they discover the punchline hidden in the name: سی مرغ (si morgh) means “thirty birds.”

Listen

This guide tells the whole story in plain English, names every bird and every valley in Persian, explains what each one stands for, and gives you the poem’s most famous couplets in the original. Every Persian line below was checked against the text of Manteq-ot-teyr on Ganjoor, the standard online library of Persian poetry. The translations are our own and stay close to the Persian, so you can see what each word does if you are learning the language.

The Conference of the Birds at a glance

Where the title comes from

منطق (manteq) means “speech” or “logic,” and طیر (teyr) is an Arabic word for “birds.” The phrase comes from the Quran (27:16), where Solomon says he has been taught manteq at-teyr, the language of the birds. That is a fitting source: in the same chapter of the Quran, the hoopoe is Solomon’s messenger. Attar picks up both threads. His hoopoe is the bird that once served Solomon, and the “language of the birds” becomes the secret language of the soul.

English translators have called the poem The Conference of the Birds, The Speech of the Birds, Bird Parliament and The Canticle of the Birds. They are all the same work.

Who was Attar?

Attar lived in Nishapur (نیشابور, neyshâbur), the same city in Khorasan where Omar Khayyam lived about a century earlier. His pen name عطار (‘attâr) means a seller of perfumes, herbs and medicines, which was his trade. He was probably born in the 1140s and died around 1221, at the time of the Mongol invasion of Khorasan; the exact dates are uncertain.

Besides Manteq-ot-teyr, his best-known works are the Elâhi-nâme (الهی‌نامه), the Asrâr-nâme (اسرارنامه), the Mosibat-nâme (مصیبت‌نامه) and a prose book of Sufi saints’ lives, the Tazkerat-ol-owliyâ (تذکرة‌الاولیا). Rumi admired him deeply. A well-known story says the old Attar met the boy Rumi and gave him a copy of the Asrâr-nâme; it is a legend, not documented history, but it shows how Persian readers see the line from Attar to Rumi. You can read more about that tradition in our real Rumi quotes in Persian and life of Rumi posts.

The story of The Conference of the Birds, step by step

1. The birds gather and the hoopoe speaks

The poem opens, like most Persian long poems, with praise of God. Its very first line is:

آفرین جان‌آفرین پاک را / آن که جان بخشید و ایمان خاک را

âfarin jân-âfarin-e pâk râ / ân ke jân bakhshid o imân khâk râ

“Praise be to the pure Creator of souls, who gave a soul, and faith, to dust.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, Fi-t-towhid, couplet 1

Listen

Then the story begins. All the birds of the world meet and complain that every country has a king, but they have none. The hoopoe (هدهد, hodhod) steps forward. He wears a crest, he once carried Solomon’s messages, and he knows the way. Attar greets him with the line مرحبا ای هدهد هادی شده (marhabâ ey hodhod-e hâdi shode), “Welcome, O hoopoe who has become a guide.”

Listen

The hoopoe tells them they already have a king:

هست ما را پادشاهی بی خلاف / در پس کوهی که هست آن کوه قاف

hast mâ râ pâdshâhi bi-khalâf / dar pas-e kuhi ke hast ân kuh-e ghâf

“We have a king beyond all doubt, behind the mountain that is Mount Qaf.”

نام او سیمرغ، سلطان طیور / او به ما نزدیک و ما زو دور دور

nâm-e u simorgh, soltân-e toyur / u be mâ nazdik o mâ zu dur dur

“His name is Simorgh, sultan of the birds. He is near to us, and we are far, far from him.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, Aghaz-e ketab (Majma’-e morghan), couplets 97-98

Listen

Mount Qaf (کوه قاف, kuh-e ghâf) is the mythical mountain at the edge of the world. In Persian it still means “the end of the earth”: something پشت کوه قاف (posht-e kuh-e ghâf) is impossibly far away.

2. A feather falls in China

How do the birds know anything about the Simorgh? The hoopoe explains that one night the Simorgh flew over China and a single feather fell from him. Every land went wild over that feather. All the pictures in the world, he says, are traces of it.

ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب / جلوه‌گر بگذشت بر چین نیم‌شب

ebtedâ-ye kâr-e simorgh, ey ‘ajab / jelve-gar bogzasht bar chin nim-shab

“The Simorgh’s story began, how strange, when he passed over China at midnight, showing himself.”

در میان چین فتاد از وی پری / لاجرم پرشور شد هر کشوری

dar miyân-e chin fetâd az vey pari / lâjaram por-shur shod har keshvari

“A feather fell from him in the middle of China, and so every land was filled with longing.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, Hekayat-e simorgh, couplets 1-2

Note the small pun: پر (par) is “feather,” and پرشور (por-shur) is “full of passion.” Persian script writes both with the same letters. The passage also alludes to the saying “seek knowledge, even in China,” which Attar quotes in Arabic a few lines later.

3. The birds make their excuses

The birds are excited, but when they hear how long and dangerous the road is, each one finds a reason to stay home. Each excuse is a human weakness, and each time the hoopoe answers with an argument and a story. This is the most quotable part of the poem, and the part most summaries skip.

The Homa (هما) is a legendary bird of good fortune; Persian tradition says that whoever its shadow falls on becomes a king. Some of Attar’s bird names are literary: in modern Persian the owl is usually جغد (joghd) rather than کوف, and the duck is usually اردک (ordak) rather than بط. You can learn the everyday names of birds and other animals in our animals in Persian lesson.

Listen
Listen
Listen

The nightingale is the first to speak, and Attar introduces it like this:

بلبل شیدا درآمد مست مست / وز کمال عشق نه نیست و نه هست

bolbol-e sheydâ dar-âmad mast-e mast / v-az kamâl-e ‘eshgh na nist o na hast

“The love-crazed nightingale came in, utterly drunk, so deep in love that he neither was nor was not.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, Hekayat-e bolbol, couplet 1

The hoopoe’s reply is blunt: the rose laughs at you, it fades in a week, and love for something that does not last will only make you sad.

4. The questions, and the story of Sheikh San’an

The birds keep asking questions: Why are you better than us? What if I die on the road? I am a sinner, can I still go? The hoopoe answers each with a short tale. These tales, about kings and beggars, saints and fools, Sultan Mahmud and his servant Ayaz, Majnun and Layla, make up most of the poem.

The longest and most famous is the story of Sheikh San’an (شیخ صنعان, sheykh san’ân), told by the hoopoe in answer to the birds’ first doubts. It begins:

شیخ صنعان پیر عهد خویش بود / در کمال از هرچه گویم بیش بود

sheykh san’ân pir-e ‘ahd-e khish bud / dar kamâl az har-che guyam bish bud

“Sheikh San’an was the master of his age; in perfection he was more than anything I could say.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, Javab-e hodhod, the story of Sheikh San’an, couplet 1

San’an is a revered teacher with four hundred disciples. He dreams of bowing to an idol in Rum (the Christian lands), travels there, and falls hopelessly in love with a young Christian woman. To win her he gives up everything his followers respect: he drinks wine, burns his Quran and herds pigs. His disciples abandon him. Later a loyal disciple shames them for leaving, they pray for him together, San’an wakes from his obsession and returns to his faith, and the young woman, moved, follows him and becomes a believer before she dies. The story shocks on purpose. For Attar, love that burns away reputation and pride is a picture of the seeker’s love for God.

5. The road: seven valleys

When the birds ask how long the road is, the hoopoe says no one has ever come back to tell:

گفت ما را هفت وادی در ره است / چون گذشتی هفت وادی، درگه است

goft mâ râ haft vâdi dar rah ast / chon gozashti haft vâdi, dargah ast

“He said: seven valleys lie on our road. When you have crossed the seven valleys, there is the court.”

وا نیامد در جهان زین راه کس / نیست از فرسنگ آن آگاه کس

vâ nayâmad dar jahân zin râh kas / nist az farsang-e ân âgâh kas

“No one in the world has come back from this road; no one knows how many leagues it is.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, ‘Ozr avardan-e morghan, couplets 9-10

Listen

The word for valley, وادی (vâdi), is still used in Persian for a stage or a field of life, as in “the valley of love.” Here are the seven valleys in Attar’s order. The hoopoe names them all in four couplets (13 to 16 on the same Ganjoor page).

Listen

Here is how the hoopoe lists them in the poem (spelling as on Ganjoor):

هست وادی طلب آغاز کار / وادی عشق است از آن پس، بی‌کنار

hast vâdi-ye talab âghâz-e kâr / vâdi-ye ‘eshgh ast az ân pas, bi-kenâr

“The Valley of Seeking is where the work begins; after that comes the Valley of Love, without shore.”

پس سیم وادیست آن معرفت / پس چهارم وادی استغنی صفت

pas seyyom vâdi-st ân-e ma’refat / pas chahârom vâdi-ye esteghnâ sefat

“The third valley is that of Knowledge; the fourth is the valley whose quality is Detachment.”

هست پنجم وادی توحید پاک / پس ششم وادی حیرت صعب ناک

hast panjom vâdi-ye towhid-e pâk / pas sheshom vâdi-ye heyrat, sa’b-nâk

“Fifth is the Valley of pure Unity; sixth, the hard Valley of Bewilderment.”

هفتمین وادی فقرست و فنا / بعد ازین روی روش نبود ترا

haftomin vâdi faghr-ast o fanâ / ba’d az in ruy-e ravesh nabvad torâ

“The seventh valley is Poverty and Annihilation; after this there is no road left for you to walk.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, ‘Ozr avardan-e morghan, couplets 13-16

Notice the ezâfe in vâdi-ye talab, “the valley of seeking”: after a word ending in a vowel, the linking -e becomes -ye. Our guide to the ezafe explains the rule.

6. Thirty birds reach the Simorgh

Thousands of birds set out. Some drown, some die of thirst, some are burned, some are eaten, some simply give up. Only thirty, exhausted and broken, reach the court. At first a herald turns them away: the king does not need them. They refuse to leave, like the moth that will not stay away from the candle. At last the curtain is lifted, and they look at the Simorgh:

چون نگه کردند آن سی مرغ زود / بی‌شک این سی مرغ آن سیمرغ بود

chon negah kardand ân si morgh zud / bi-shak in si morgh ân simorgh bud

“When those thirty birds looked, they saw at once: without a doubt, these thirty birds were that Simorgh.”

خویش را دیدند سیمرغ تمام / بود خود سیمرغ سی مرغ مدام

khish râ didand simorgh-e tamâm / bud khod simorgh si morgh modâm

“They saw themselves as the whole Simorgh; the Simorgh had been the thirty birds all along.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, Si-morgh dar pishgah-e simorgh, couplets 33 and 35

Listen

Confused, they ask what this means, and the answer comes “without a tongue”:

بی زفان آمد از آن حضرت خطاب / کاینه‌ست این حضرت چون آفتاب

bi-zafân âmad az ân hazrat khetâb / k-âyene-st in hazrat chon âftâb

“Without a tongue, an answer came from that presence: this majesty is a mirror, like the sun.”

هر که آید خویشتن بیند درو / جان و تن هم جان و تن بیند درو

har ke âyad khishtan binad dar u / jân o tan ham jân o tan binad dar u

“Whoever comes sees himself in it; body and soul see body and soul in it.”

چون شما سی مرغ اینجا آمدید / سی درین آیینه پیدا آمدید

chon shomâ si morgh injâ âmadid / si dar in âyine peydâ âmadid

“Since you came here as thirty birds, thirty is what appeared in this mirror.”

Source: Ganjoor, Manteq-ot-teyr, Si-morgh dar pishgah-e simorgh, couplets 43-45

زفان (zafân) is an old form of زبان (zabân), “tongue” or “language,” and آینه / آیینه (âyene / âyine) is “mirror.” Finally the thirty birds lose themselves in the Simorgh, “as a shadow vanishes in the sun,” and the story ends.

The Simorgh pun: si + morgh

The whole poem builds to one word. In Persian, سی (si) is “thirty” and مرغ (morgh) is “bird.” Written together, سیمرغ is the name of the great mythical bird; written apart, سی مرغ is “thirty birds.” Since Persian script has no capital letters, the only difference on the page is a space. Spoken aloud, they sound the same.

Listen
Listen

The Simorgh was not invented by Attar. It is an ancient Iranian bird; in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh it raises the abandoned baby Zal in its nest on Mount Alborz and later helps Rostam, and it appears in many Persian stories and paintings. Attar takes this familiar king of birds and turns it into a mirror: the seekers were looking for something outside themselves, and what they found was what they had become on the way.

What The Conference of the Birds means: the main themes

The journey inward

The birds travel to the end of the world and discover that what they sought was in themselves. This is the central Sufi idea of the poem: God is “near to us, and we are far” because of our own selves, not because of distance. The journey is really a journey of change.

The guide

The hoopoe is the Sufi master, the پیر (pir). Most birds cannot find the way alone. Their excuses also sound like people who come to a teacher and then explain why they cannot change.

Annihilation of the self

The last valley, فنا (fanâ), means passing away of the self. The ending is not about thirty birds being proud of being divine; it is about the ego disappearing so that only the reflection remains.

Love over reason and reputation

Sheikh San’an, Majnun and the moth all choose love over safety and good name. Attar uses earthly love to talk about divine love, a habit that runs through later Persian poetry, from Rumi to Hafez.

Stories as teaching

The poem teaches by telling stories inside a story. Rumi’s Masnavi works in the same way, and it even has its own story of the hoopoe and Solomon.

Influence and English translations

Attar shaped the Sufi poetry that came after him. A line often credited to Rumi says that Attar had crossed all seven cities of love while “we are still at the bend of one lane”; we could not confirm its source, but it captures how Persian readers rank him. In the West, Edward FitzGerald, famous for his Khayyam, made an abridged version called Bird Parliament. In 1979 Peter Brook and Jean-Claude Carrière created the play La Conférence des oiseaux, which made the story known to theater audiences around the world.

Main English translations:

• Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis, The Conference of the Birds (Penguin Classics, 1984): verse in rhyming couplets, the most widely read version.
• Sholeh Wolpé, The Conference of the Birds (W. W. Norton, 2017): modern, very readable.
• Peter Avery, The Speech of the Birds (1998): complete and close to the Persian, with notes; good for study.
• C. S. Nott (1954): a prose version made from a French translation.

If you are learning Persian, reading a translation side by side with the original on Ganjoor is a good way to meet classical vocabulary in context. The language of Manteq-ot-teyr is plain for its time, and many lines are understandable to an intermediate learner with a dictionary. Our Persian dictionary and the poems in our Persian poems collection are good next steps, and The Greatest Works of Persian Literature gathers several classics in one place.

Key Persian words from the poem

Listen
Listen
Listen

Want more? Test yourself on other poets with our Persian poetry quiz, or read the real lines of Attar’s neighbor from Nishapur in our Omar Khayyam quotes post.

Common questions

What is the main message of The Conference of the Birds?

That the divine the seeker looks for is not far away but hidden by the self. The thirty birds travel to find a king and discover that the Simorgh is a mirror of what they have become. The path there means giving up attachments, pride and finally the ego itself.

What is the Simorgh in The Conference of the Birds?

The Simorgh (سیمرغ) is a great mythical bird of Iranian legend, known from the Shahnameh. In Attar’s poem it stands for God, or the divine Truth, and its name hides the pun سی مرغ, “thirty birds.”

What are the seven valleys in The Conference of the Birds?

In order: Seeking (طلب, talab), Love (عشق, ‘eshgh), Knowledge (معرفت, ma’refat), Detachment (استغنا, esteghnâ), Unity (توحید, towhid), Bewilderment (حیرت, heyrat), and Poverty and Annihilation (فقر و فنا, faghr o fanâ).

Why is the hoopoe the leader?

In the Quran (chapter 27) the hoopoe serves King Solomon as a messenger, so it was already known as a wise bird that knows the way. Attar makes it the Sufi guide who knows the road to the king.

How long is The Conference of the Birds, and is it hard to read?

It is a long poem of roughly 4,500 couplets, but it is built from short stories, so it reads in small pieces. A good verse translation takes a few evenings. In Persian, its language is simpler than Hafez, and an intermediate learner can follow many passages with help.

Which translation of The Conference of the Birds is best?

Darbandi and Davis (Penguin) is the classic verse translation and keeps rhyme. Sholeh Wolpé’s version is the most modern in tone. Peter Avery’s The Speech of the Birds is the most literal and annotated, which helps if you want to compare with the Persian.

Learn Persian with our bestseller

Study with the book

Learn Farsi in 100 Days: The Ultimate Crash Course to Learning Farsi Fast

PDF ebook, instant download. $26.99 Original price was: $26.99.$14.99Current price is: $14.99.

Add to cart See inside

Serious about Persian? Get all 30 of our Persian learning books for $199.99 (55% less than buying them one by one).

Browse all Persian learning books