This 12th century Persian poet's work tells of the journey of the birds to visit King Simorgh. Their journey is an allegory of the soul's search for unity with the divine. Sufic belief is that in such unity the distinctions between self and the divine fall away. Farid Ud-Din Attar was a thirteenth-century Iranian Sufi poet ...wrote ecstatic verse describing the experience of mysticism. In The Conference of Birds, or Manteq ut-Tair, Attar explores the themes of Sufism through an allegorical story of a gathering of birds facing a difficult journey to find the Simurgh, or king of the birds. Some birds never set out, others are lost along the way, and only a few succeed in completing the journey. This particular edition has beautiful illustrations on every page." --Multicultural Review Raficq Abdulla has written and presented numerous radio programs about Islam for the BBC, including a series of talks on the Prophet Muhammad and the Four Caliphs, and programs on the life and work of Jalaluddin Rumi. He has also written award-winning screenplays for Channel 4 in Britain, poetry and articles for a range of journals, and he is a frequent book reviewer. Raficq Abdulla describes himself as a secular Muslim and a lover of the arts, particularly music and poetry. He is the author of Words of Paradise, a collection of new interpretations of poems by Rumi and has gained popularity as an accomplished public speaker and performer of his own poetry.