Anqa

The Anqa (Arabic: عَنْقَاء, romanized: ʿanqāʾ), also known as Anqa Mughrib or Anqa al-Mughrib (Arabic: العَنْقَاء المُغْرِب), is a legendary golden bird in Arabian mythology. This elusive creature appears only at rare intervals throughout the ages, said to dwell at "the place of the setting of the sun."

Descriptions portray the Anqa as extraordinarily beautiful and vibrant, with distinctive features including a long neck, human face, and four pairs of wings. Its appearance allegedly incorporates elements resembling every living creature, with a notable "whiteness" in its neck region. In his cosmological masterpiece Aja'ib al-Makhluqat ("The Wonders of Creation"), Zakariya al-Qazwini characterizes the Anqa as "the kin of birds that lived alone on Mount Qaf" and "a wise bird with experience gained throughout many ages" that offers moral guidance and admonitions. According to Qazwini, this magnificent creature lives for 1,700 years, reproduces at 500 years of age, and its offspring remains within the egg for 125 years after hatching before emerging. Legend holds that the Anqa's diet consists exclusively of elephants and large fish.

The Anqa has become virtually synonymous with the Persian Simurgh, as well as showing connections to the Armenian and Byzantine eagles and the Turkic Konrul (also called semrük), largely due to the widespread influence of Islamic artistic traditions following the collapse of the Persian Empire. Scholars frequently equate the Anqa with the phoenix. In Turkish, an alternative name for both the Konrul and the phoenix is zümrüdü anka, meaning "the emerald anqa." In contemporary Arabic, the Anqa is commonly identified as either a phoenix or a griffin.