Italian translation of a famous work by the Persian sufi and poet Farid al-din 'Attar (d.1230). The "Language of the birds" (Mantiq al-Tayr) narrates the allegorical journey of the birds - through seven valleys and beyond the Mount Qaf, under the guidance of the Hoopoe - towards their king Simurgh. They will discover that Simurgh, a transparent image of God, is identical with their souls, which is also a teaching of the main streams of Sufism.The editor, Carlo Saccone, is an associate professor of Persian literature at the University of Bologna and has already translated many classical authors such as Sana'i, Hafez, Nezami, Ahmad Ghazali, Ansari, Naser-e Khosrow. He also wrote a thematic history of the Persian literature in three volumes (Viaggi e visioni di re, sufi, profeti, Luni 1999; Il maestro sufi e la bella cristiana, Carocci 2005, Il re dei belli, il re del mondo, Aracne 2014).