ʿAql-i Surkh “The illuminated intellect” / “The crimson Archangel” is one of the Suhrawardi’s mystical and philosophical treatises, composed in Persian language. The treatise contains a dialogue between the narrator and a sage. Throughout the story, it reveals that the sage is the celestial angelic self of the narrator and guides him to better understanding of the self and, thus, the universe and the creator. The tale is about the crucial role of wisdom in spiritual development of a disciple (مرید). The present study focuses on the concept of wisdom (Arabic: عقل, New Persian: خرد) in general, and two kinds of wisdom (innate and acquired) in particular. Both these wisdom are explained very prominently in the extant Avestan and Middle Persian literature. Beside the title of the treatise, several characters in the tale are related to the concept of wisdom/intellect, namely: the character of the sage, the Simorgh and the Gazelle. My intention in the present paper is to demonstrate that the Simorgh and the Gazelle in the ʿAql-i Surkh symbolize two kinds of wisdom. Simorgh’s character can be identified as the acquired wisdom and the character of the Gazelle can be identified as the innate wisdom. Additionally, the sage (پیر/خضر), as the most complicated character of the tale, represents many characteristics of the Mazdean archangel of wisdom, Vohumanah, although there are significant differences between the two. Throughout the present study, I shall analyze the tale and extract the features of the above mentioned characters and compare them to the relevant Avestan and Middle Persian material that we have in hand.