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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happened when Truth's sunlight cleared the air in the Valley of Insight into Mystery?

2. Why did the lover want to kill his beloved?

3. Who was Majnoun searching for in the dust of the highway?

4. The peasant in the desert compared a man who does not seek to ___________.

5. How many starving brothers did Joesph have leave their home to come and stand in his presence and beg for help?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the bird who claimed that he had bad luck substantiate his claim that he could not go on the quest with the hoopoe?

2. What did Mahna's shiekh tell the old woman about how to pray?

3. What must one do to find God in the Valley of the Quest?

4. Describe the Valley of Bewilderment.

5. What did the hoopoe tell the birds to expect in the Valley of Love?

6. What did the hoopoe say about audacity being allowed before the Simorgh?

7. What was the definition of justice that the hoopoe gave to the birds?

8. Why did the slave not complain about the apple that his king gave to him?

9. What did the lover of the man who slept all the time write on the note that she attached to his sleeve?

10. How did the hoopoe answer the bird that claimed to be satisfied with his spiritual state and, therefore, did not need to go on the quest to see the Simorgh?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The introduction of the book defines the use of metaphors as not typical of what an English reader would understand. Choose three examples of Attar's use of a metaphor and explain his use of the metaphor in the text.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the personification of the Self, Love, Truth, Unity, Reality, and the Way. How are these personified? Why are they personified? What purpose does the personification serve in respect to the lesson that Attar was trying to teach?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the actual conference of the birds. What was the purpose of the conference? What did the birds learn about the journey that they were to go on? Why does this journey parallel one that can be seen in anyone's life?

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This section contains 844 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample