Simurgh
Mythological Narrative
The Simurgh is the giant bird of Persian myth, its spread wings broad enough to shade the sun. Its lineage runs back to the Avestan bird Saena; Middle Persian texts call it the Senmurw, and the Bundahishn perches it on the Tree of All Seeds in the middle of the world sea Vourukasha — each time it takes flight, the seeds shake loose and are carried by rain and wind to every corner of the earth.
Ferdowsi's Shahnameh made it one of the most affecting figures in the epic. Zal, son of Sam, was born with the white hair of an old man and abandoned on Mount Alborz as an ill omen; the Simurgh carried the infant to its nest, reared him with its own chicks, and taught him speech and wisdom. When the grown Zal returned to men, the bird gave him a feather from its breast: burn it, and I will come. The feather was redeemed twice. When Zal's wife Rudaba lay dying in labor, the Simurgh flew down and taught the delivery of the child by cesarean cut — the infant was Rostam, the greatest of Persian heroes. Years later, when Rostam lay grievously wounded from his duel with the invulnerable prince Esfandiyar, the bird came again, drew the arrowheads from him and his horse Rakhsh, healed them with its feathers, and revealed the one weapon that could prevail: a double-pointed arrow of tamarisk wood aimed at the prince's eyes. In the twelfth century, Attar's Conference of the Birds built a famous pun upon it: thirty birds (si morgh) cross seven valleys seeking the Simorgh, and what they find at journey's end is their own reflection — the bird became Sufi poetry's emblem of the self united with the divine.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## From Saena to Simurgh
The name Simurgh (Middle Persian Senmurw) comes from the Avestan *saena meregha*, 'the bird Saena', a great bird mentioned in the Yashts. Middle Persian texts make the Senmurw a being of cosmic scale nesting in the tree of all seeds that stands in the middle of the sea Vouru-Kasha; when it rises from the tree, seeds are scattered to be carried by the rains over the world.
## In the Shahnameh
Ferdowsi's Simurgh is the protector of Zal and his family. She finds the white-haired infant abandoned on Mount Alborz and raises him with her chicks, and when his father comes to reclaim him she gives Zal a feather to burn in need. Later she guides the difficult birth of Rostam by instructing a surgical delivery, and she heals Rostam and his horse Rakhsh after their near-fatal combat with Esfandiyar, revealing to Rostam how the invulnerable prince can be killed. The Shahnameh also knows a hostile Simurgh, killed by Esfandiyar in his seven trials, which suggests more than one tradition behind the figure.
## A symbol of the divine
In Attar's twelfth-century Sufi allegory *The Conference of the Birds*, the birds of the world set out to find the Simurgh as their king; only thirty (*si murgh*, 'thirty birds') arrive, and they discover that the Simurgh they sought is themselves, a famous play on the name. The Simurgh appears widely in Persian painting and textiles.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Simurgh.
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