The 'anqa

Al-Anqa' is a wondrous bird whose reports are told in the books of heritage. Al-Masudi relates a report attributed to Ibn Abbas that God created it in the first age as one of the finest of birds, a male and a female. ²

Al-Masudi describes it in this report as having a face like the faces of men, four wings on each side, two hands with claws, and a beak like that of an eagle. ²

Its sustenance was placed in the beasts of Jerusalem, and it multiplied, then moved to Najd and the Hijaz, into the lands of Qays Aylan. It used to eat beasts and children, until Khalid ibn Sinan invoked against it, and God cut off its offspring. ²

From this report comes the proverb "a phoenix of the west" (anqa' maghrib), said of a rare and wondrous matter. ²

This is a report transmitted from al-Masudi with an attribution to Ibn Abbas, and this entry does not go beyond the source given here. It needs a further source.