250

plurality nor partnership of eternal beauty and
strength, and from that exalted station there is no
descent. When a bird or man is annihilated, a
name is always without a designate object. Yds el,
" the perfect master of union/'1 finds in this sta-

their grief met with pity. Admitted to the presence of Simurgh, they
heard the register of their faults committed towards him read to them,
and, sunk in confusion, were annihilated. But this annihilation purified
them from all terrestrial elements; they received a new life from the
light of majesty; in a new sort of stupefaction, all they had committed
during former existence was cancelled, and disappeared from their hearts;
the sun of approximation consumed, hut a ray of this light revived them.
Then they perceived the face of Simurgh: " When they threw a clandes-
" tine look upon him, they saw thirty birds in him,.and when they
** turned their eyes to themselves, the thirty birds appeared one Simurgh:
" they saw in themselves the entire Simurgh; they saw in Simurgh the
11 thirty birds entirely." They remained absorbed in this reflection.
Having then asked the solution of the problem We and Thou, that is, the
problem of apparent identity of the divinity and his adorers, they received
it, and were for ever annihilated in Simurgh: the shade vanished in the
-sun.—(See Notices et Extraits des WSS., vol. XII. pp. 306-312).

According to the thirty-seventh and last allegory of Azz-eddin Elmoca-
'dessi, an Arabian poet, who died in A. H. 678 (A. D. 1280), the assembled
birds resolved to pass a profound sea, elevated mountains/and consuming
flames, to arrive at a mysterious island where Simurgh or JSrika magh-
reb, " the wonderful," resided, whom they wished to choose for their
king. After having supported the fatigues, and surmounted the diffi-
culties and perils of their voyage, they attained their aim, a delightful
sojourn, where they found every thing that may captivate the senses.
But when they offered their homage to Simurgh, he at first refused them,
but having fcried their perseverance in their attachment to him, he at
last gratified their desire, and granted them ineffable beatitude. —(See
Les Oiseaux et les Fleurs, Arabic text and French translation, by M. .Garcin
deTassy, pp. 119, etc., and notes, p. 220).

The Sufis are divided into three great classes, to wit: I.