Animal symbols of the Ego (An-nafs al-ammārah) in Mystical Texts Relying on the Works of Sanāi, Attār and Rumi

The ego is one of the most important and complicated issues in Islamic mysticism. In Persian mystical texts، one of the main tasks of the seeker is controlling of ego and as long as he iscaught by the ego، he has no way to perfection. The ego with itsmany differentfeatures is appeared differently in different people according to their talent or predisposition. In themystical literature، Sometimes the ego is Visualized and embodied and any of Poets or writers show it based on their desires. Sometimes the ego is imagined as an animal and some animals are frequently used as symbols of the ego (based on their characteristics. In the introduction to this paper، there are brief definitions of two important idioms namely symbol and the ego). Afterwards، the animals discussed by the poets are introduced and then there is an attempt to answerwhy the poet has used the animal as the symbol of that trait of the ego. The purpose of thisstudy is clarifying one aspect of thevery diverse about epiphany of ego in Persian literature. In this article، Descriptive analysis was used.