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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The poet notes that he is nothing, not from an origin story, not body or __________, according to the writing.
(a) Soul.
(b) Happiness.
(c) Truth.
(d) Endings.

2. A baby __________ hears a whistling and is thus driven to fly into the sky, according to Rumi.
(a) Eagle.
(b) Hawk.
(c) Pigeon.
(d) Owl.

3. The poet quotes Muhammad in one of the poems, saying that he will come take a person before _________.
(a) Death.
(b) Birth.
(c) Nightfall.
(d) Dawn.

4. ______ means the sun, and Rumi often referred to him in his poetry which he began writing after his friend's death.
(a) Moses.
(b) Shams.
(c) Shiraz.
(d) Solomon.

5. Rumi suggests that human beings are like "some weird kind of ______ that wants to stay melted in the furnace."
(a) Silver.
(b) Gold.
(c) Iron.
(d) Lead.

Short Answer Questions

1. Those who do not wake to the truth, according to Rumi, are those who do not embrace the beauty of __________.

2. "______ think they're looking for each other, but there's only one search: wandering the world."

3. The destination may be unclear for __________ understanding, according to Rumi, but one should walk anyway.

4. Rumi slipped back into what ______ the Greek called the whole catastrophe as a living example of another possibility for life.

5. Rumi asserts in his poems that "the miracle of ______ is himself, not what he said or did about the future."

Short Essay Questions

1. What are some of the ways a person will be able to bring themselves into the present moment, according to Barks?

2. What does Rumi say has happened since he has been knocking on a door?

3. What doesn't matter in the midst of an orchard in the spring, according to the writings of Rumi?

4. Why was Shams pushed out of the area by the students of Rumi, according to the beginning of the book?

5. After the narrator says they are no religion or culture, not east or west, what does the narrator say they do belong to?

6. What is the metaphor Rumi uses in order to describe the pull of love in one's life and how one should be pulled by love?

7. What does Rumi have to say about the road to Mecca when he is describing the idea that some mysteries aren't meant to be known?

8. What does Rumi do when he is so impressed with the depth of the knowledge of Shams?

9. Where do human beings sit, according to the writings of Rumi, when they are in a prison?

10. What happens when you fast, according to the narrator of the poem, in one of Rumi's writings?

(see the answer keys)

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