Page 55 - The Book of Rumi

The King’s Falcon

he king had a deep love for falcons and was indeed an accomplished
Tfalconer. He kept a separate area of his palace dedicated to his outstand-
ing birds and visited them regularly. One afternoon, after he’d fi nished some
routine business with his advisers, he decided that it was the perfect time to

fly his favorite falcon. But, alas, when he entered the enclosure he saw that the
bird had escaped!
The falcon, having been reared in the palace all her life and cared for
tenderly by the king himself, had somehow gotten out and lost her way, and
had ended up at an old woman’s cottage. The woman was preparing a pot of
soup for her family when she caught sight of the astounding bird perched on
her wall. She felt sorry for her and grabbed her by the talons, tying them up

with a piece of string so she couldn’t fly away, and began to stroke her beauti-
ful feathers.
She decided, though, that the bird’s long, unkempt feathers needed prun-
ing, so she cut them as short as she thought appropriate. Then she noticed
the bird’s talons and thought it best to cut them as well, for they seemed not
to have been trimmed for a long while. The entire time she tended to the
poor falcon, she stroked her caringly and whispered to her sympathetically:
“Where have you been, little one, that they’ve treated you so badly? Look how
long your feathers and nails had grown! You should’ve flown to Mother much

sooner.”
The lost falcon was now trapped for good, unable to fly or climb away.

Meanwhile, the king and his soldiers had searched the entire county for her
and were returning to the palace empty-handed and downhearted. As they
rode through the last village on their route, all of a sudden, the king caught
sight of his poor falcon, who didn’t look anything like her old, beautiful self
but was still completely familiar to the king. In the midst of the smoke and
dust of the old woman’s poor hut, the bird had lost her glory; the glamour of
the palace had been completely washed away.
Tears welled up in the king’s eyes, and he spoke: “This is your pun-
ishment for being ungrateful and forsaking my blessing. Ending up in this

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