The Parrot longs for immortality, and the Hoopoe encourages the Peacock to choose the whole. The Nightingale says that the love of the Rose satisfies him, and the journey is beyond his strength but the Hoopoe warns against being a slave of passing love that interferes with seeking self-perfection. She recommends Simurgh as their true king, saying that one of his feathers fell on China. The Hoopoe presents herself as a messenger from the invisible world with knowledge of God and the secrets of creation. When the birds assemble, they wonder why they have no king. One cannot gain spiritual knowledge without dying to all things. The soul will manifest itself when the body is laid aside. ‘Attar believed that God is beyond all human knowledge. Attar began The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq al-tair) with an invocation praising the holy Creator in which he suggested that one must live a hundred lives to know oneself but you must know God by the deity, not by yourself, for God opens the way, not human wisdom. The journeys undertaken by birds profoundly represent the spiritual pilgrimages of man, in quest of the God, as he goes through different phases. The Valley of Astonishment and Bewilderment.The Valley of Independence and Detachment.The story revolves around their painstaking journeys though 7 valleys in a quest to find their King, Simurgh. It tells of a conference of different birds, each representing a certain attribute or sin. Manteq al-Tayr (Conference of the Birds) is Attar greatest work. Ilahi nama and Manteq al-Tayr are his greatest works. The event influenced his life so much that he abandoned his perfume shop and went on a spiritual pilgrimage to Kufa, Mecca, Damascus, Turkistan, and India, meeting with Sufi sheikhs – and returned to Nishapur promoting Sufism. It is being reported that he was at his shop when he encountered a sufi saint at his shop.
Farid-ul-Din left his profession to travel for the ultimate question of discovering oneself. Attar therefore refers to profession of Farid-ul-Din which eventually became more of his pseudonym. The word ‘Attar’ (perfumist) derives from Arabic/Persian word ‘Itur/Atur’ meaning perfume. He has often being referred as Farid-ul-Din of Nishapur. Faridi-ul-Din Attar (or Faridudin) was born in Nishapur, in the Iranian province of Khorasan and died in the same city.