Simurgh

The Simurgh is a giant, benevolent bird of Iranian mythology. Its name comes from Middle Persian sēnmurw and the Avestan phrase for the bird Saēna, probably an eagle, falcon or sparrowhawk. In Zoroastrian-era texts it roosts in a tree of life in the middle of the world sea and scatters plant seeds, linking earth and sky. A later folk etymology links the first syllable to Persian si (thirty), which scholars regard as historically unfounded.

Its best-known appearance is in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. The albino child Zal is abandoned on Mount Alborz and raised by the Simurgh, who gives him three feathers to burn if he ever needs her help. When Zal’s wife Rudaba is in difficult labour, the Simurgh guides a caesarean birth that saves her and produces the hero Rostam. Later she heals Rostam and advises him about the prince Esfandiyar, giving a feather used to make the arrow that blinds him.

The bird was a royal and tribal emblem for the Sasanians and appears on Sasanian silver plates of the 7th–8th centuries, in the Afrasiab murals of 648–651 CE in Samarkand, and on Samanid-era platters of the 9th–10th centuries. Its image also appears in Georgian, Armenian and Byzantine art and on a madrasa in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

In the 12th-century Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, Attar of Nishapur uses the wordplay sī morgh (thirty birds): thirty birds seeking the Simurgh find only their own reflection, a metaphor for finding God within.

An enormous, long-lived bird of brilliant plumage; in art often a composite creature with a dog-like head and a peacock-like tail.

A nest on Mount Alborz or in the tree of life at the centre of the world sea.

The Simurgh is a national symbol of Iran: a Crystal Simorgh is the top prize of the Fajr Film Festival, and the image appears in miniatures, carpets, tilework and modern design.