Ziz

The Ziz () is a giant griffin-like bird in Jewish mythology, said to be large enough to be able to block out the sun with its wingspan.

Description The Ziz is considered a giant animal/monster corresponding to archetypal creatures. Rabbis have compared it to the Persian Simurgh, while modern scholars compare the Ziz to the Sumerian Anzû and the Ancient Greek phoenix.

There is only passing mention of the Ziz in the Bible, found in "I know all the birds of the mountains and zîz śād̲ai [] is mine" and "The boar from the forest ravages it, and zîz śād̲ai feeds on it", and these are often lost in translation from the Hebrew, being referred to in most English translations as ambiguous "beasts" and referred to as neither singular nor avian (śād̲ai usually being translated as "of the field").

The Ziz is later referred to in the Jewish aggadot, namely the Talmudic tractates Bava Batra (in one of a sequence of fantastic voyages recounted by Rabbah bar bar Hana) and Bekhorot (as Renanim and Bar Yokni). The aggadot say of the Ziz:

Later interpretations Non-Jews also knew of the Ziz. Johannes Buxtorf's 1603 Synagoga Judaica discusses the Ziz. His text is echoed in English by Samuel Purchas in 1613:

Humphrey Prideaux in 1698 describes the Ziz as being like a giant celestial rooster:

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