The Conference of the Birds

The hoopoe is the leader of the conference of birds and guides them on their journey to the Simorgh. He was a confident of the biblical King Solomon and carried messages between him and the Queen of Sheba (29). The majority of the poem is structured by the other birds asking the hoopoe questions, and the hoopoe replying with advice, admonishments, and stories that illustrate his point.

The hoopoe is the equivalent of a sheikh guiding his religious pupils along the path of God. The hoopoe also emulates the relationship the poet has to his audience. Throughout the poem, it is often unclear whether the hoopoe or the author is speaking; frequently, the two seem to merge into a singular voice. The hoopoe often admonishes the birds in ways that are addressed to humanity. Attar’s relationship to his human audience, the reader, is thinly veiled behind the hoopoe’s relationship to the group of birds. 

A mythical bird that lives on Mount Qaf. The hoopoe tells the conference of birds that the Simorgh is their sovereign leader, and the birds eventually recognize him as such. When the final thirty birds arrive at the Simorgh’s palace, they discover that their king is merely their own reflection.