Over eight hundred years ago, the philosopher Hakim Majdud Sanai of Ghazna (Afghanistan), in his Walled Garden of Truth, published this tale in a form corresponding to the needs of his time. His pupil and fellow-countryman, Jalaludin Rumi, immortalized his version in the incomparable Mathnavi, towards the end of the thirteenth century. In 1965 this adaptation was filmed by the celebrated producer-director Richard Williams on the basis of a twentieth-century version by Idries Shah.
The film won a citation as an Outstanding Film of the Year, being chosen for exhibition at the London and New York Film Festivals.
