The Conference of the Birds

The hoopoe finally finishes describing the Seven Valleys, and every bird is filled with a trembling fear. Some are so afraid that they perish in despair on the spot, but other birds rise up and the flock departs on its journey. The flock travels for what seems like years. The speaker does not relay what happens on the journey, but very few survive the Way: one bird out of every thousand. Some birds die from exposure to the elements, some by predators, some due to hunger or thirst, and some are too weak to fly any longer. At the end of this description, the speaker revises his figure: one in every 100,000 birds survive the journey.

The remaining thirty birds arrive at to the Simorgh. They are “exhausted, wretched, broken things” (214) and wait a very long time for the Simorgh to greet them. A herald appears and asks them a number of questions about their journey, and the birds request to see the Simorgh. The herald tells the birds to turn back but the birds persist. They narrate the moth’s tale for the herald. The herald eventually relents and unlocks the palace door.