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