[citation needed] In February 2019 an authorized translation of both titles and some others was published by the Baháʼí World Centre in the collection The Call of the Divine Beloved.
[1] The Seven Valleys was written after March 1856, probably around 1857-1858[2] in Baghdad after Baháʼu'lláh had returned from the Sulaymaniyah region in Iraqi Kurdistan where he spent two years anonymously with various Sufi sheikhs using the pseudonym Darvish Muhammad-i-Irani.
[3][4] The work was written in response to questions posed by Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din, a judge, who was a follower of the Qádiríyyih Order of Sufism.
[5] About the time of writing to Baháʼu'lláh, he quit his job, and spent the rest of his life wandering around Iraqi Kurdistan.
As the recipient was of Sufi origin, Baháʼu'lláh used historical and religious subtleties which sometimes used only one or a few words to refer to Qurʼanic verses, traditions, and well-known poems.
[citation needed] The book follows the path of the soul on a spiritual journey passing through different stages, from this world to other realms which are closer to God, as first described by the 12th Century Sufi poet Farid al-Din Attar in his Conference of the Birds.
The stages are accomplished in order, and the goal of the journey is to follow "the Right Path", "abandon the drop of life and come to the sea of the Life-Bestower", and "gaze on the Beloved".