Idries Shah spent much of his life collecting and publishing Sufi classical narratives and teaching stories from oral and written sources in the Middle East and Central Asia. The tales he retold especially for children are published by Hoopoe Books in beautifully illustrated editions and have been widely commended - by Western educators and psychologists, the U.S. Library of Congress, National Public Radio and other media - for their unique ability to foster social-emotional development, thinking skills and perception in children and adults alike. Told for centuries, these stories express universal themes from the cultures that produced them, showing how much we have in common and can learn from each other. As noted by reviewers, such stories are more than just entertaining; familiarity with them provokes flexibility of thought, since each one contains levels of meaning that unfold in accordance with an individual's experience and understanding.

(Bilingual English-German edition / Zweisprachige Ausgabe Englisch-Deutsch) When a good-natured lion, king of all the animals, sees his reflection in a pool of water for the first time, he gasps at the fierce creature staring back at him and is too frightened to drink - until, finally, he overcomes his fear. Children learn through the lion how to deal positively with the fears and inhibitions that so often arise from situations they may not yet understand. Originally told by the 13th-century Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water is one of a series of teaching stories that were collected by Idries Shah and that have been used in the East for hundreds of years as educational instruments to help children understand life. Ingrid Rodriguez's beautiful illustrations bring this children's version to life with warmth, humor and a distinctive richness of detail.¿Als ein gutmütiger Löwe, der König aller Tiere, zum ersten Mal sein Spiegelbild in einem Wasserbecken sieht, keucht er bei der wilden Kreatur, die ihn anstarrt und hat zu viel Angst, zu trinken - bis er schließlich seine Furcht überwindet. Kinder lernen durch den Löwen, positiv mit Ängsten und Hemmungen umzugehen, die so oft aus Situationen entstehen, die sie vielleicht noch nicht verstehen. Die Geschichte Der Löwe, der sich selbst im Wasser sah wurde ursprünglich erzählt von dem Sufi-Dichter Jalaluddin Rumi aus dem 13. Jahrhundert. Sie gehört zu einer Reihe von Lehrgeschichten, die von Idries Shah gesammelt wurden und im Osten seit Hunderten von Jahren als pädagogische Instrumente verwendet werden, um Kindern zu helfen, das Leben zu verstehen. Die wunderschönen Illustrationen von Ingrid Rodriguez erwecken diese Kinderversion mit Wärme, Humor und einem unverwechselbaren Detailreichtum zum Leben.