overfigures in paintings or alone on tiles or everyday objects. These
visitations suggest intertextual associations with the bird that imbue it
with a complex iconography.
Introduced to the Persian-Islamic literary canon in Firdausi’s
Shahnameh, the mythical Simurgh echoes multiple traditions of giant
birds carrying humans (thesaenaof the Avesta, the Middle PersianSen
Merv, Zeus in the myth of Ganymede, and the Egyptian god Theuth, also
known as Ammon, son of the sun who comes to earth concealed in an egg)
or associated withfire (the Hindu Garuda, the Chinese Fenghuang, and the
Greek Phoenix). It is central to several tales in theShahnameh. When the
hero Rustam’s father, Zal, is born with white hair, his father Sam leaves him
to perish on a mountain. The Simurghfinds him and takes him home to
feed his chicks, but ends up raising him alongside them. Sam repents, and
the Simurgh returns Zal, giving him a feather to burn if ever in need. Zal
calls upon him twice: one to enable his beloved Rubedah to give birth to
their son, the hero Rustam, through an incision (i.e. a Caesarean section)
that the feather would render painless and help heal; and again, to heal
Rustam and enable him to combat his foe, Asfandiyar. Although it is a
minor mythicalfigure in theShahnameh, Firdausi affiliates the Simurgh
with the divine by attributing Zal’s protection to God.
The Simurgh also features in the twenty-second epistle of the Brethren
of Purity, where it serves as king of the birds and evaluates the qualities of
each species to select one as emissary to the court of thejinnto defend
against the human claim that animals should be subservient to humankind.
Echoing the competition between Aristotle and Plato, the Simurgh selects
the nightingale, suggesting song over language and emotion over speech as
the more important rhetorical tool.^34
In Attar’sLanguage of the Birds, the Simurgh gained a starring role in
popular epic poetry. The work’s title refers to a statement in the Quran
made by Solomon upon succeeding David:“People, we have been taught
the speech of the birds”^35 (Q27:13). Soon after Solomon chides the Hoopoe
for his absence, the bird appears with news of Bilqis (the biblical Queen of
Sheba), whose heliolatry veers from the righteous path of monotheism. The
Hoopoe communicates with Solomon, whose wisdom enabling commu-
nication with birds reflects his ordained sovereignty. Building on this
Quranic narrative, Attar’s poem develops a frame story describing the
quest, led by the Hoopoe, of a multi-species group of birds for their just
king–the Simurgh. The poem inverts the fable format by relating parables
(^34) Goodman and McGregor, 2009 : 162–172. (^35) Abdel-Haleem, 2004 : 240.
The Simurgh 89