Ishaq ibn Hunayn

Indeed, from this earliest period, the Arab writers had already begun to identify the Anqa with other creatures.

So, for example, in the famous Abbasid scholar Ishaq ibn Hunayn, the son of the maybe even more famous Hunayn ibn Ishaq, the great translator, when he translated a book by Aristotle, The Physics, he actually translates the word sphinx, originally, to the Anqa.

But even more prominently, the Anqa became identified with a similar creature in Persian lore called the Simurgh.

In adapted versions of the Persian national epic Shahnameh, the Simurgh is rendered in Arabic as Anqa.

Well, I mean, first of all, the Greek traditions was translated based on the will of Muslim scholars and the governors or the caliphs to open themselves to other cultures and have dialogue with them, intellectually speaking, and translate their books.

The movement of translations was highly encouraged and well-paid, and Muslim scholars, Christians, and other people of other religions were actually heading the institute called Dar al-Hikmah or the House of Wisdom, And actually the director of the House of Wisdom was a Christian, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and also Ishaq ibn Hunayn.

All this indication seems that there is a willingly open dialogue with the West, with the Greek philosophy, Indian arithmetics, Persian culture, and so on.

Let me ask you