The Conference of the Birds

In the final question posed to the hoopoe, a bird asks how long the journey is to the Simorgh, and the hoopoe answers by describing the seven valleys of the Way. The hoopoe says that the distance of these valleys is unknown, because no one has returned. The hoopoe calls the valleys “seven stages” and names them: the Valley of the Quest, the Valley of Love, the Valley of Mystery and Insight, the Valley of Detachment and Serenity, the Valley of Unity, the Valley of Bewilderment, and, finally, the Valley of Poverty and Nothingness. He goes on to describe each of these valleys in detail and, like his replies to the birds’ individual questions, follow these descriptions with stories or fables.

The Valley of the Quest is the beginning of the journey. It is the place where the birds must renounce the power of Self, all worldly possessions, and the world. Physical and emotional possessions are cast off until nothing remains in the heart besides the quest itself. At the end of this stage, the bird will unlearn the difference between strength and blasphemy because “both vanish into strengthless vacancy” (167).