People have lived alongside animals for a very long time, and al-Damiri’s book is full of what medieval households noticed about the creatures in their homes, yards, and markets. These guides gather our articles about animals people still keep today — what the old book recorded about their nature, in its own strange and charming way.
Please note: these articles are history and general reading, drawn from a 700-year-old book — they are not pet-care instructions or veterinary advice. For your own animal’s health and care, a local veterinarian is always the right call.
Kings kept talking parrots as palace spies, and one famous story has Aristotle teaching a parrot with a mirror. What the book recorded about the bird that copies our words.
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The book’s rabbit wards off evil spirits, sleeps with its eyes open, and once took a fox to court before a lizard judge. A small animal with a very large file.
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From a caliph’s two bowls to the boldest reply ever sent to a threat, the duck’s entry is half barnyard, half history.
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Goslings that swim from birth, a mate standing guard over the nest, and one feather that caught a thief for Solomon. The goose, taken seriously.
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Talking cows, kings judged by a cow’s milk, and fire tied to tails to call down rain — the farm animal al-Damiri refused to call ordinary.
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Riding a she-donkey was said to cure pride. The entry pairs that claim with a Bedouin who out-dignified a governor from the back of the leanest mount in the desert.
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The falcon that vanished into the sky and returned carrying a fish — and once debated a rooster on the meaning of loyalty. Falconry’s proud bird, medieval style.
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Not a guide but a story: when mice overran Noah’s Ark and ate the stores, the book says the answer came from a lion’s sneeze — the first cat.
Read the article →More animals join the collection as new entries from the book are published. Browse them all in the Animal Encyclopedia →