WASHINGTON — To join Al Qaeda in Osama bin Laden’s day, prospective recruits had to take an arduous and risky journey to the network’s haven in the mountains of northwestern Pakistan, the heartland of global Islamist militancy.

Then they had to fill in an application.

The three pages of questions show how Al Qaeda, in its vision of itself as a disciplined network of committed militants, blended the mundanely bureaucratic with the frighteningly absurd. Among the queries: “Do you wish to execute a suicide operation?” and “Who should we contact in case you become a martyr?”

The last line provided space for the address and phone number of next of kin.

The application, which was among nearly 80 documents and other materials, including books and press clippings, seized from Bin Laden’s compound during the raid by Navy SEAL members in May 2011, was declassified on Wednesday by the Obama administration.

The material offers the deepest look yet into Bin Laden’s final years, much of which he appears to have spent sending missives to his subordinates, seeking to direct a terror network that appeared to have grown far beyond his control, and working his way through a pile of books that ranged from sober works of history and current affairs to wild conspiracy theories spun by anti-Semites.