The Conference of the Birds

The Seven Valleys can be viewed as the physical manifestation of the stages encountered by the Sufi’s Way. The Sufi’s Way is a carefully prescribed method of obtaining enlightenment that occurs in a particular order.

A version of the metaphor “the birds were on fire” appears throughout the poem, which is used to indicate religious elevation or intensity. Though the poet repeats many metaphors to create a narrative cohesiveness to disjointed stories, Attar’s decision to use fire as a metaphor for religious fervor is especially noteworthy for its subversiveness. The Zoroastrians, a religious group that occupied Iran prior to Islam, worshipped fire. This would have been considered idol worship, which is not allowed in Islam. Attar’s constant reference to fire as a symbol of religious fervor would have been scandalous to Islamic orthodoxy, and underscores Sufism as a religious sect in conflict with this orthodoxy.

In Islam, it is forbidden to drink alcohol, but figurative language containing wine or stories about drunkenness appear often throughout the poem. Attar usually portrays these things positively as a method to question the validity of common religious and social conventions. They are also used, in terms of the religious persecution of Sufis, as a