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The use of various metaphors in mystical texts has opened up a new horizon for the readers and has expanded their understanding of the meaning of the universe. Because of its associative function in mystical texts, metaphor creates new experiences for the reader—experiences that are foreign to the reader’s personal experiences. This research draws on George Lakoff’s and Mark Johnson’s studies on “Conceptual Metaphor” (Cognitive Linguistics). These two theorists believe that reasoning and conceptualization inseparably depend on physical and environmental features. In Mawlānā’s poetry, the act of conceptualizations and reasoning is tied to biological capabilities and physical and social experiences of the individuals. There is a chain-like network of metaphorical relations in Mawlānā's cognitive world ‎ that starts from conception of an embryo in womb and continues to weaning the child. The conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb and Jesus’s birth are one of the most common metaphors to explain Mawlānā’s understanding of the Master’s unity. Furthermore, inside this network, Mawlānā uses the mother-child relationship to account for God-Human relation. This paper studies the metaphor of mother and all the images related to the growth of a child, for example the breastmilk, through which Mawlānā explains the steps of seyr-o solook (spiritual quest for the truth). 

Keywords: Mawlānā, Diwan-e Shams, mother, Child, metaphorical network, cognitive linguistics

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