Simurgh

The Simurgh is depicted in Parsan art as a winged creature in the shape of a bird, gigantic enough to carry off an elephant or a whale. It appears as a peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion – sometimes, however, also with a human face. The Simurgh is inherently benevolent and female. Being part mammal, she suckles her young and has teeth. It has an enmity towards snakes and Yuan-ti, and its natural habitat is a place with plenty of water. Its feathers are said to be the colour of copper, or iridescent, like the 30 colors of a peacock.

Some say the Simurgh is so old that it had seen the destruction of the world three times over and has lived so long that it is thought to possess the knowledge of all the ages. In one Mittani legend, the simurgh was said to live 1,700 years before plunging itself into flames and that it was the Simurgh that gave of itself my plunging into Mt. Damavand that allowed warmth to renew the world and set off The Awakening.

The simurgh was considered to purify the land and waters and hence bestow fertility. The creature represented the union between the Earth and the sky, serving as mediator and messenger between the two. The simurgh roosted in Gaokerena, the Tree of Life, which stands in the middle of the world sea, @Vourasaka. Gaokerena is potent medicine and is called all-healing, and from it the seeds of all plants can be grown. When the simurgh took flight, the leaves of the tree of life shook, making all the seeds of every plant fall out. These seeds floated around the world on the winds of Vayu, wind god, and the rains of Tyr in cosmology taking root to become every type of plant that ever lived and curing all the illnesses of mankind.