Editing Simurgh (section)

===In Persian Sufi poetry===
[[File:An assembly of animals and birds - Johnson Collection (c.1610) - BL J.67.4.jpg|upright|thumb|Simurgh from the works of [[Attar of Nishapur]]]]
In classical and modern Persian literature the simorḡ is frequently mentioned, particularly as a metaphor for God in [[Sufism|Sufi mysticism]].<ref name="Iranica" /> In the 12th century ''[[The Conference of the Birds|Conference of the Birds]]'', Iranian Sufi poet [[Attar Neyshapuri|Farid ud-Din Attar]] wrote of a band of pilgrim birds in search of the simurgh. In the poem, the birds of the world gather to decide who is to be their king, as they have none. The [[hoopoe]], the wisest of them all, suggests that they should find the legendary simorgh, a mythical Persian bird roughly equivalent to the western [[Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]]. The hoopoe leads the birds, each of whom represent a human fault which prevents man from attaining enlightenment. When the group of thirty birds finally reach the dwelling place of the simorgh, all they find is a lake in which they see their own reflection. This scene employs a pun on the Persian expression for "thirty birds" (''si morgh'').<ref>{{cite book|title=The World of Persian Literary Humanism|author=Hamid Dabashi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQFNfOPAS04C&pg=PA124|page=124|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0674067592}}</ref>

The phrase also appears three times in Rumi's [[Masnavi]], e.g. in Book VI, Story IX: "The nest of the ''sī murğ'' is beyond [[Mount Qaf]]" (as translated by E.H. Whinfield).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whinfield |first1=E.H. |title=Masnavi i Ma'navi |date=2001 |publisher=Omphaloskepsis |location=Ames, Iowa |page=468 |url=https://ia601601.us.archive.org/11/items/MasnaviByRumiEnglishTranslation/rumi_masnavi.pdf |access-date=25 September 2022}}</ref>

Through heavy Persian influence, the simurgh was introduced to the [[Arabic]]-speaking world, where the concept was conflated with other Arabic mythical birds such as the [[ghoghnus]], a bird having some mythical relation with the [[date palm]],<ref>[http://ommolketab.net/english/search/search.php?mid=9401676 Quranic articles; Vegetables in Holy Quran – The date-palm]{{dead link|date=August 2012}}</ref> and further developed as the ''rukh'' (the origin of the English word "[[roc (mythology)|roc]]").
Representations of simurgh were adopted in early [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] art and coinage.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Compareti |first1=Matteo |title=The State of Research on Sasanian Painting |url=https://www.academia.edu/1809995 |journal=Humanities.uci.edu |access-date=4 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>