Soluk from the Perspective of Ibn al-Farez

Soluk (spiritual journey) is one of the most important issues in mysticism. Each mystic has his own interpretation of suluk. One of the most famous Arabic poets is Ibn al-Farez (Umar ibn Alī ibn al-Fārid), 576-632 AH, known as Sultān al-Āshegin, who is a great mystic and a man of letters. Ibn al-Farez has established his mysticism based on love; he continually speaks of divine wine and believes that Love is the most important subject in the world and the greatest motivation for transcendence of man. The present article tries to examine suluk in Ibn al-Farez's works from literary and mystical points of view and to study four stages of "sensual observation", "sensual experience", "direct vision by heart" and "spiritual observation" in his thoughts. The results show that he uses the symbols for exposition of soluk and only Muslim mystics can understand his explanations about symbols.