Anqa

Lore & Background

The Anqa is described as very beautiful and colorful, with a long neck, a human face, four pairs of wings, and some resemblance to every living being, with a whiteness in its neck. The word ʿanqāʾ is the feminine form of ʾaʿnaq, meaning 'long-necked,' implying a resemblance to herons, cranes, eagles, or falcons. The epithet muḡrib carries meanings such as 'strange,' 'distant,' 'west,' 'desolated,' and 'white,' reflecting the creature's enigmatic and unreal nature. The Anqa was said to eat nothing except elephants and large fish.

Reader's Guide

The Anqa holds significance as a symbol of mystery, rarity, and calamity in pre-Islamic Arab mythology. Its name is related to ʿanāq ('misfortune, hard affair'), and it was used to denote a calamity because the bird was originally created with all perfections but became a plague and was killed. One of the earliest accounts appears in a 9th-century book, Dala'il al-Nubwah, where King Solomon discussed fate with the birds, and the Anqa objected. Zakariya al-Qazwini, in his cosmological work Aja'ib al-Makhluqat, describes the Anqa as the kin of birds living alone on Mount Qaf, a wise bird with experience gained over many ages, giving admonitions and moral advice. The Anqa's legacy extends into Islamic art and literature, where it is frequently identified with the simurgh, the phoenix, and the Turkic Konrul (also called Zümrüdü Anka). In Modern Standard Arabic, the Anqa is identified as a phoenix or griffin.

Did You Know?

• The Anqa is said to live for 1700 years, mating at 500 years of age, and its chick stays inside the egg for 125 years after the egg breaks.
• The word ʿanqāʾ is the feminine form of ʾaʿnaq, meaning 'long-necked,' and is related to ʿanāq, meaning 'misfortune, hard affair.'
• The Anqa was described as having a human face, four pairs of wings, and a whiteness in its neck.
• The Anqa is frequently identified with the simurgh of Persian mythology and is almost always glossed as a phoenix.