Sufism

The Valley of Unity, where the many are seen as one

In the fifth valley, distinctions the seeker relied on throughout the whole journey — self versus other, seeker versus sought — begin to collapse.

The Valley of Unity is the fifth of Attar's seven valleys, marking the point where the traveler perceives the underlying oneness beneath what had appeared, until now, as separate individuals, forms, and even separate stages of the path itself. This is the doctrinal heart of Sufi metaphysics — tawhid ordinarily names the oneness of God, but Attar extends it experientially, describing a state where the birds themselves, the valleys they crossed, and the Simorgh they seek start to look less like distinct things and more like expressions of a single reality. It is placed after Detachment because perceiving unity requires a self that no longer insists on its own separateness to defend; a traveler still attached to personal outcome in the previous valley cannot yet see past their own boundary. This valley sets up the following two, Bewilderment and Annihilation, as what happens once that boundary has genuinely started to dissolve rather than merely been described.

Mantiq al-Tayr (Conference of the Birds)