Mystical Symbolizing in I Ching, Feng Shen Yen I and Attār of Nishapur’s Mantiq-ut-Tayr (Simorgh, Duck, Rooster, Goose and Crane): A Comparative Study

Symbolic and allegorical poems are considered as literary masterpieces of Persian language and have similar examples in other languages such as two works from China called I Ching and Feng Shen Yen I. The present study intends to compare Mantiq-ut-Tayr with these two books by employing descriptive-analytical method. In all three works, birds such as Phoenix (Simorgh), duck, rooster, goose and crane are mentioned when talking about suluk (spiritual journey). Considering the antiquity of these two books and based on the researches, it can be said that the Chinese were influenced by pre-Islamic Iran in religion and some arts. In the Islamic period, in the fields of art, symbolism, literary and mystical stories, writing styles in poetry and prose, many similarities can be found between Iranian and Chinese cultures. The results indicate that there are similarities between the patterns and actions of these birds (such as attention to suluk or spiritual journey, purity, purification of the soul, avoidance of self-deception, attention to the end of all ends, tolerance of sufferings and attention to the idea of eternity and immortality) in both Iranian and Chinese mystical traditions.