Iranian Simurgh

The Simurgh (Simorgh) is the most magnificent creature in Persian mythology — a gigantic, benevolent bird described as combining the features of many birds and sometimes of dogs or lions, ancient beyond reckoning (it has witnessed the destruction and rebirth of the world three times), nesting in the Tree of Knowledge at the center of the world, and possessing all the knowledge of the ages. Unlike the threatening dragons and monsters of other mythologies, the Simurgh is primarily a beneficent figure — a healer, a parent-figure to heroes, and a wisdom keeper whose feathers can cure all diseases and whose knowledge encompasses all that has been and all that will be.

The Simurgh appears repeatedly in Iran's national epic, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi (10th century CE), as the foster parent and teacher of the hero Zal — a child born with white hair who was abandoned by his father and raised by the Simurgh in its nest at the summit of Mount Alborz. The Simurgh's feather, given to Zal as protection, is used multiple times in the epic to summon the bird's healing wisdom in moments of mortal crisis. The Simurgh represents the integration of divine wisdom with earthly practical knowledge.

In the great Sufi poem 'The Conference of the Birds' by Farid ud-Din Attar (12th century), the Simurgh becomes the ultimate destination and the ultimate revelation — thirty birds (si-morgh in Persian) journey to find the mythical Simurgh and discover they themselves are the Simurgh. This insight — that what you seek externally is what you already are internally — is one of Sufism's central teachings, and the Simurgh is its most beautiful expression.