When all these birds had heard this discourse, they discovered the ancient secrets. They recognized their affinity with the Simurgh, and necessarily felt the desire to undertake the journey which the hoopoe proposed to them. Yet this very discourse made them hesitate to set out; they all felt the same anxiety, and expressed it in the same way. They therefore said to the hoopoe: “Thou who art our guide in this matter! dost Thou wish us to abandon, in order to embark upon this path, the peaceful life which we enjoy, since weak birds such as we cannot flatter ourselves that we shall find the true path to the sublime abode where the Simurgh dwells?”
The hoopoe then replied, in her capacity as guide: “He who loves gives no thought to his own life; if one truly loves, one must renounce life, whether one be abstemious or dissolute. Since thy spirit is not in accord with thy soul, sacrifice the latter, and thou shalt reach the goal of thy journey. If this soul bars thy way, put it aside; then cast thy gaze ahead and behold. If they ask thee to renounce the faith, if they would have thee renounce life, renounce both; leave the faith and sacrifice thy life. An ignorant man, unversed in spiritual things, may well say that it is false that love is preferable either to infidelity or to faith, saying: ‘What has faith, infidelity, and love to do with one another? Do lovers give any thought to their lives?’ The lover sets fire to every kind of harvest; he drives the saw into his neck, and pierces his body. Love requires pain and the heart’s blood; love delights in difficult things.
O cupbearer! Fill my cup with the blood of my heart, and, if there be none left, give me the dregs that remain! Love is a cruel affliction that devours all. Now it tears the veil of the soul, now it sews it back together. An atom of love is preferable to all that exists between the horizons, and an atom of its sorrows is worth more than the happy love of all lovers. Love is the marrow of beings; but nothing exists without true suffering. Whoever stands firm in love renounces religion and unbelief ten times over. Love will open to thee the door of spiritual poverty, and poverty will show thee the way to unbelief. When neither unbelief nor religion remains to thee, thy body and soul shall disappear; thou shalt be worthy of these mysteries: for, indeed, one must be thus to penetrate them. Go forward, then, without fear, and set thy foot upon this path like spiritual men, and renounce faith and infidelity without hesitation. Do not waver; withdraw thy hands from childhood, and rather have for this matter the ardour of the brave; a hundred vicissitudes might suddenly befall thee, yet thou wouldst have no cause for fear if they occurred upon the path in question.”