From Simorgh of Qaf to the Lord of the Interior Castle (A comparative study of the structure and content of the Manteq_Al_Tayr and Interior Castle)

Manteq_Al_Tayr is one of the Islamic Persian mystical masterpieces, written by Attar, which expresses the progress of the soul with a narrative structure in a format of an allegory of birds flying to the Qaf Mountain, the place on which Simorq dwells. These birds pass seven valleys to reach mountain Qaf and finally in seventh valley find out they are in unity with Simorq. Christian mysticism, also have been appropriate ground for literary masterpieces to be created. One of these works is Interior Castle written by S.T. Teresa of Avila, the Spanish nun in sixteenth century. In this book the progress of the soul in seven mansions of a castle, which Teresa had seen in one of her revelations, has been imagined. In central mansion, the soul meets Lord and reaches a unity with Him. Because of the similarity between Manteq_Al_Tayr and Interior Castle, and also because of common mental and cultural background of these books, the following question was considered: What are the structural and conceptual similarities and differences between these two works? A comparative analysis would answer this question.