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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 did the "narrator" (the hoopoe) compare the beggar to in the story "The Beggar Who Fell in Love with Ayaz"?

2. To whom did the hoopoe say the Way belonged?

3. What was the second test of the journey to find the Simorgh?

4. Why did the lover lay in exhaustion and sleep in "The Lover Who Slept"?

5. What did the dervish ask of God in regard to the famine of Egypt?

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. According to the hoopoe, what happened when one entered the Valley of Insight into Mystery?

3. What did the "faithless Moslem" think about doing when the "faithful infidel" was bent in prayer?

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

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

6. What were the two things that the Sheikh of Turkestan loved?

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

8. Why did the hoopoe not have an exact length of the quest for the birds?

9. What did the hoopoe say in regard to the length of the quest to see the Simorgh?

10. Describe the Valley of Unity.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Two of the most important themes that traverse the book's entirety are the importance of passionate love and the destruction of the Self. However, many times these two themes are joined to show that one depends wholly on the other. Discuss the dependency that passionate love and the destruction of the self have throughout the book. Why do they depend on each other? What stories show this dependency, and how do the stories speak to the dependency? Use only details from the book for support.

Essay Topic 2

At the end of the book, the birds find out that they are, in fact, the Simorgh. Discuss the inferences that are made throughout the book that hint at this being true. How did their concerns, actions, fears, and successes lead you to believe that the birds were the Simorgh.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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