CONTENTS

				PAGE
Title
Foreword				vii
Introductory Note on Persian Mysticism				1
	“I Am God”			1
	Withdraw into Thyself			7
	The Doctrine of Absorption in the Deity			8
	The Heart, the Mirror of Divinity			11
	The Gospel Of Self-Loss			13
	The Path			16
	Theism or Pantheism			18
	The Sufi’s Critique of Reason			19
	The Commingling of the One and the Manifold			22
	The Most Distinctive Feature of Oriental Mysticism			23
	The Origin of Sufism			24
	The Story of Initiation of Hazrat-Ali			26
	The Thy-Will-Be-Done State of Sufism			28
	The Aphorisms of a Female Saint			30
	Theosophic Stage of Mysticism			31
	Influence of Neo-Platonism			33
	The Peregrinations of Plotinus			35
	The Triads of Plotinus			37
	Home, Wanderer, Home!			39
	Introversion Is Ascension			40
	The Evolution of Sufi Philosophy			41
	Influence of Zoroastrianism			42
	The Heritage of the Sasanian Culture			45
The Conference of the Birds				47
	Part I. The Parliament of the Birds			47
			The Parliament of the Birds	49
			The Princess and the Dervish	51
			A Miser’s Fate	53
			A Handsome King	54
			Story Of Shaykh San‘an	55
	Part II. On, To the City of God			63
			“On, To the Bound of the Waste, On, To the City of God”	65
			Sultan Mahmud And the Orphan Lad	65
			A Grave-Digger’s Experience	68
			A Saint’s Dream	70
			A King’s Palace	72
			A Father’s Love	74
			Shaykh Ahmed Guri and Sultan Sanjar	76
			A Faithful Infidel and a Deceitful Crusader	76
			The Magic Cup of Joseph	77
			The Advice of Satan	79
			Sultan Mahmud and Ayaz	80
	Part III. Through the Seven Valleys			83
		The Valley of the Quest		85
			Majnun’s Search of Layla	86
			Mahmud and the Rag-Picker	86
		The Valley of Love		87
			A Love-Sick Nobleman	88
			Majnun’s Stratagem	89
		The Valley of Knowledge		91
			The Man of Stone	93
			The Beloved Who Found Her Lover in the Arms of Morpheus	94
			A Love-Sick Sentinel	95
			Sultan Mahmud and the Fanatic	96
		The Valley of Detachment		97
			An Analogy from Astrology	98
			The Fly and the Bee-Hive	99
		The Valley of Unity		101
			Advice Given to a Shaykh by a Woman	102
		The Valley of Bewilderment and Stupefaction		105
			A Mother’s Grief	105
			The Lost Key	106
		The Valley of Poverty and Annihilation		108
			Nasir-ud-din Tusi’s Advice to His Disciple	109
			The Assemblage of Butterflies in Search of the Candle	110
	Part IV. The Reception at the Royal Court			113
Appendix. A Brief Memoir of the Poet				119
	Farid-ud-din Attār			121
Index				125