Rumi's vast body of poetry includes a lengthy epic of religious mysticism, the Hathnavi, and more than three thousand lyrics and odes, many of which came to him while he was in a state of trance. A. J. Arberry, who selected four hundred of the lyrics for translation and annotated them, calls Rumi "one of the world's greatest poets. In profundity of thought, inventiveness of image, and triumphant mastery of language, he stands out as the supreme genius of Islamic mysticism."

A. J. Arberry (1905-73) was professor of Arabic at Cambridge University.