The hoopoe

The hoopoe is easy to recognise and hard to forget: pinkish-buff body, black-and-white barred wings, a long curved bill and a crest that opens like a fan when the bird is alarmed or landing. It probes lawns, orchards and village lanes for insects, and its soft, repeated call carries a long way on a still morning. In Persian it is hodhod, and also shane-be-sar, the bird with a comb on its head.

Solomon's messenger

The hoopoe arrives in Persian literature already famous. In the Qur'an it is the bird that brings Solomon news of the Queen of Sheba, and Islamic tradition made it a messenger and a bird of wisdom. Farid al-Din Attar of Nishapur gave it its greatest role. In his long poem Manteq ot-Teyr, the Conference of the Birds, the birds of the world gather to find a king, and the hoopoe, who has served Solomon, offers to lead them to the Simorgh, a great bird who lives beyond seven valleys.

Thirty birds

Most of the poem is argument. Bird after bird makes its excuse: the nightingale cannot leave its rose, the hawk prefers its king's wrist, the duck will not leave the water. The hoopoe answers each with a story. The journey through the valleys, among them love, knowledge and annihilation, kills most of the company. Only thirty birds arrive, and when they finally look upon the Simorgh, they see themselves. The poem turns on a pun: si morgh means thirty birds. It is a demanding idea to place on a bird that spends most of its day poking about in the grass. Perhaps that is the point. Attar's guide is not an eagle but a familiar garden bird, wearing its crown lightly.