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(81) He learned birds' language from "what we were taught." But thou art only a bird of the air; understand then That thou hast never seen the true spiritual birds! The nest of the Simurgh is beyond Mount Qaf, Not every thought can attain thereto; Save thoughts which catch a glimpse thereof, Yet not all shut off, rather intermitted for a wise end, For the blessing abides, though shut off and hidden! In order to preserve that body which is as a soul, The Sun is veiled for a while behind a cloud;

(2) And may Kavi Vîstâspa, and the Zarathustrian Spitâma , and Frashaostra too with them, offer propitiation to Mazda in thought, word, and deed, and Yasna confessions as they render Him praise, making straight paths (for our going), even that Faith of the Saoshyant which Ahura will found .

(92) Sound the note of every bird that draws near; When God sent, thee to the birds, To the predestinarian bird talk predestination, To the bird with broken wings preach patience, To the patient well-doer preach comfort and pardon, To the spiritual 'Anka relate the glories of Mount Qaf, To the pigeon preach avoidance of the hawk, To the lordly hawk mercy and self-control; As for the bat, who lingers helpless in the dark, Acquaint him with the society of the light;

(71) Yea, they used technical expressions one to another, The vulgar learn the words of this "language of birds," And make boast of their mastery thereof; But these words are only the outward form of the language, The "raw" man is ignorant of the birds' meaning. He is the true Solomon who knows the birds' language, A demon, though he usurp his kingdom, is quite another. The demon has taken upon him the form of Solomon, His knowledge is fraud, not "what we have been taught." When Solomon was blessed with inspiration from God,

(14) (But where is such an one?) Whom hast thou Zarathustra ! thus a holy friend for the great (effort of the) cause? Who is it who thus desires to speak it forth? (Zarathustra answers. Aye, such an one have.) It is our Kavi Vîstâspa , the heroic; (and not he alone, but all) whom thou shalt (as in Thy prophet) meet in the assembly, O Ahura Mazda! these likewise will I call (to my attempt), and with Thy Good Mind's words.

(6) (Therefore will I incite him to his task the more. Let him indeed proclaim the righteous way ) he who already lifts his voice in Mãthras, O Ahura Mazda! he, Zarathustra , the faithful friend in accordance with the Holy Order, and with self-abasing worship, giver of understanding for this land, voice-guider (of the way to glory ), let him indeed proclaim and teach my regulations, and in accordance with Thy Good Mind (as his law).

(16) (And one of you, the greatest, has indeed attained to that wisdom which is thus blessed with a promise), Kavi Vîstâspa has reached it in the Realm of our great cause (of devotion ), and moved in his toil by the chants of the Good Mind (who speaks in the Mãthra ); yea, he hath attained to that wisdom which the bountiful Ahura conceived in accordance with Asha, thus to teach us salvation.

There was a certain merchant who kept a parrot in a cage. Being about to travel to Hindustan on business, he asked the parrot if he had any message to send to his kinsmen in that country, and the parrot desired him to tell them that he was kept confined in a cage. The merchant promised to deliver this message, and on reaching Hindustan, duly delivered it to the first flock of parrots he saw. On hearing it one of them at once fell down dead. The merchant was annoyed with his own parrot for having sent such a fatal message, and on his return home sharply rebuked his parrot for doing so. But the parrot no sooner heard the merchant's tale than ho too fell down dead in his cage. The merchant, after lamenting his death, took his corpse out of the cage and threw it away; but, to his surprise, the corpse immediately recovered life, and flew away, explaining that the Hindustani parrot had only feigned death to suggest this way of escaping from confinement in a cage.

A certain man came to Moses and desired to be taught the language of animals, for, he said, men used their language only to get food and for purposes of deception, and possibly a knowledge of animals' languages might stimulate his faith. Moses was very unwilling to comply with his request, as he knew such knowledge would prove destructive to him, but, on his persisting, took counsel of God, and finally taught him the language of fowls and dogs. Next morning the man went amongst the fowls, and heard a discussion between the cock and the dog. The dog was abusing the cock for picking up the morsels of bread which fell from their master's table, because the cock could find plenty of grains of corn to eat, whereas the dog could only eat bread. The cock, to appease him, said that on the morrow the master's horse would die, and then the dog would have enough and to spare. The master, hearing this, at once sold his horse, and the dog, being disappointed of his meal, again attacked the cock. The cock then told him the mule would die, whereupon the master sold the mule. Then the cock foretold the death of a slave, and the master again sold the slave. At this the dog, losing patience, upbraided the cock as the chief of deceivers, and the cock excused himself by showing that all three deaths had taken place just as he had predicted, but the master had sold the horse, mule, and slave, and had thrown the loss on others. He added that, to punish him for his fraudulent dealing, the master would himself die on the morrow, and there would be plenty for the dog to eat at the funeral feast. Hearing this, the master went to Moses in great distress, and prayed to be saved. Moses besought the Lord for him, and gained permission that he should die in the peace of God.