The first examples of Symbolic Stories in the East are based on Turkish Islamic culture. Turkish Islamic culture is a rich value system that is mixed with many sciences such as literature, history, philosophy, and religion. Each of the published works represents this culture in the best possible way. These first exemplary texts, which deal particularly with the esoteric aspects of religion and the degree of perfection of reason, were written a language that ordinary people could not understand. The aim is to guide those who want to go beyond the limits of religion and philosophy. From this perspective, these texts offer a common method for those who seek truths, both philosophically and from a mystical perspective. This method includes a number of practices to prevent things that cause a person to be blind to their mind and deaf to themselves. These practices are both physical and spiritual, such as abandoning carnal desires, asceticism, deep contemplation, and mystical journeys. Only at the end of such an education can a person attain both mental and spiritual perfection and ascend to the levels of perfection.

The relationship between man and truth has been established in different ways throughout human history. This study examines how Eastern Islamic culture, which evaluates truth from a metaphysical perspective and sees it as the only reality, understands and narrates this truth. What makes this study special is that it examines works that combine literary, philosophical, and religious features within these truth narratives and tries to explain the purposes for which they were written. This study aims to determine concepts and metaphors based on philosophy and mysticism in symbolically written stories in Oriental literature and to seek common ground between the two different paths by both disciplines in searching for truth. Thus, this study the possibility of reaching the truth through a single path.

This study examines three of the most famous examples of symbolic writing in Oriental literature: Molla Jami’s Salaman and Absal, Avicenna’s Hayy bin Yaqzan, and Shahabaddin Suhrawardi’s allegorical tales called Gabriel’s Wing Voice. The authors of these examples were not actually men of letters but philosophers. These philosophers, who are affiliated with  the Peripatetic tradition, describe two different methods of intellectual effort and Sufi journey in finding the truth due to their inclination toward Sufism. However, for them, these two paths are two paths that are close enough to each other to help each other and to grasp the single truth. According to them, a person can perfect their mind by obeying the self-control of Sufism, and through this perfection, they can establish a connection with the Active Intellect, which is the intermediary between the world of minds. Through this connection, he can reach the level where he can be inspired by the truth itself. The greatest help in reaching this result was the emanation theory of Peripatetic philosophy and the ser u süluk theory, which symbolizes the soul stages of Sufism. Peripatetic philosophers took the theory of emanation from Plotinus, the pioneer of the Neo-Platonic doctrine, but they ranked the mind differently from her. In all three texts, turning away from the world and establishing a connection with the Active Intellect is explained as the highest goal of man in this world and that only through this connection can he move toward the truth he wants to reach. From this perspective, of course, every person’s goal be directed to the same goal, but the main issue here is that a person is considered an ideal person/human being.

The texts in question provide information on how and why people should establish a connection with active intelligence, which acts as an intermediary between truth and self. This information is advice that includes moral and religious rules in particular. However, these texts have written this information in a language that the public cannot understand, with hidden symbols and symbols. Their aim is to prevent this difficult journey to the truth from being misunderstood by the public. Thus, they allegorically narrated the secrets of this journey so that only experts can understand them. In this respect, these texts are not only a philosophical or religious guide to finding the truth but, also have a quality that will greatly develop people’s mental worlds and enrich their imagination. On the other hand, these texts written in symbols provide each person with an intellectual experience to reach their own truth and take on the role of a guide to reach the truth.

Therefore, this study has shown that religion and philosophy can meet on the same ground when given the opportunity and that they can express the single and universal truth to those who listen in, a different language but essentially the same way. The literary form, which is the most beautiful form of this expression, is also a praiseworthy quality, especially because its expression is chosen symbolically in terms of its attention-grabbing and curiosity-arousing nature. This means that when philosophy, religion, or Sufism come together and tell things that cannot be told by themselves, with the help of literature, it creates a completely different effect on the human mind.

The conclusion reached by this study actually includes an effort of Peripatetic philosophers to reconcile philosophy and religion. Ultimately, they reconcile religion with philosophy and to show that reason is not contrary to religion. In this way, man will be able to reach his creator, whom he knows as the truth, both through reason and faith. On the other hand, the thinkers whose works are examined have put forward the theory of the evolution of the mind in order to base the way of getting inspiration or information from the truth outside of belief. The evolution of the mind is only possible as a result of being freed from the bonds of the soul. The stories discussed express this in the most beautiful way.