The story of the captured bird offering three counsels to its captor in exchange for freedom is a shared narrative in Persian Sufi literature, appearing in both Farid al-Din Attar's Elahi Nameh and Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi (Book Four).

Narrative and Structural Variations

• Attar's Version: The tale involves the scholar Sha'bi and a small bird (sa'veh). The bird delivers its counsels from three distinct positions: the captor's hand, a safe tree branch, and a mountain peak.
• Rumi's Version: The bird delivers its advice from the captor's hand, a plaster roof (bam-e kahgel), and a tree. Rumi significantly expands the dialogue, emphasizing the bird's intellectual superiority over its human captor from the outset.

Didactic and Theological Emphasis

While both allegories warn against human greed, the delusion of believing the impossible, and grieving over the past, they differ in philosophical scope:

• Attar emphasizes how worldly attachments and desires inst...