Angels in the Form of Animals and Beasts

The image is a vertical manuscript illumination divided into three horizontal panels framed by green borders. The top panel features a stylized orange-red bird with dark-tipped wings standing amidst stylized floral sprigs. The middle panel shows a blue bird with orange-red secondary wing feathers, also surrounded by floral motifs. The bottom panel depicts a plum-colored, four-legged beast resembling a horse or donkey, standing in profile on a plain ground with sparse plant decoration. Below each figure, lines of Ottoman Turkish text describe the spiritual beings represented in these forms.

This leaf is from a manuscript of 'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat' (Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence), a seminal work of Islamic cosmography by the 13th-century polymath Zakariya al-Qazwini. The text explores the nature of the celestial realms and the varying forms angels may assume in the physical world.