Longlisted for the PEN Translation Award
Best Spiritual Books of 2025 - Spirituality and Practice
The first comprehensive English collection from one of the world’s most influential mystics—Attar—the twelfth-century poet Rumi called his master.
Twelfth-century Persian poet Attar (1145–1221) was revered by Rumi and though his work is beloved around the world, he is mostly unknown to English readers. Translated in simple, elegant language by award-winning poet Sholeh Wolpé—one among generations of poets influenced by Attar's poetry—The Invisible Sun is a beautiful treasury of Attar’s most prescient poetry, offering comfort and inspiration.
Attar was one of the most important mystic Sufi poets in the East, comparable in stature and influence to John Milton in the West. In Western thought there is a sharp separation between day-to-day human experience and the transcendence of religion and spirituality. But Sufi philosophy teaches that while the soul awaits its release from the confines of the body, it can experience the other world through mystic union achieved by an inward journey to purify the self.
The Invisible Sun widely introduces the work of Attar—the master Rumi called “the spirit” and himself “its shadow”—to English-speaking readers as never before. Profound yet exquisite in its simplicity, bringing comfort and wisdom, Attar’s poetry continues to resonate today:
Everything, large and small, honors your existence,
don’t look at yourself with contempt.
There is nothing greater than you.