One horned hare Al-Mi'raj or Almiraj appears in popular Arabic mythology. Most famously the unicorn hare is part of the mythological tale of Iskandar, or Alexander the Great. In myth and literature both hare and unicorn are associated with mystic lore.
Read: Cult of the Fire God - Bronze Age Quest Adventure
If it seems to have leopard features, it's possible. In medieval times, the Arabian leopard wanders the lands as an alpha predator. The leopard goes into decline in the 1960s and is now critically endangered. Both big cats and hares relate to the night, moon and swiftness.
READ: Lora Ley Adventures - Germanic Mythology Fiction Series
Hares, unlike rabbits, have similar leg action to big cats and can run at high speeds. The magical talent of Al-Mi'raj, the mythical hybrid hare-unicorn beast, is to make wild animals flee in terror at the sight of it.
In the myth of Alexander the Great, the King is given the unicorn hare as thanks from the people of Dragon Island (Jazīrat al-Tinnīn), when he slays the resident dragon or serpent in the 4th century BCE.
READ: Reiker For Hire - Victorian Detective Murder Mysteries
He has but to show Al-Mi'raj, and not just wild animals, but his enemies too, run away stricken with fear and confusion. The story of Alexander and the unicorn hare is first described by medieval philosopher Qazwini.
The story is accompanied by a miniature painting of the dragon and the horned hare. The dragon is shown "devouring sulfur-filled bulls, which look like a red piece of meat". In the writings of Qazwini, the hare Al-Mi'raj is yellowish with a long black horn.
According to the legend, Iskandar slays the dragon using decoy oxen made of ox-hide packed with lethal substances. Qazwini's cosmology lists the reactive ingredients including coniferous resin, turpentine; pitch or tar; sulfur, quicklime and arsenic.
Various versions of the dragon slaying include five oxen filled with oil and poison to kill the dragon. In another Alexander has two sacrificed oxen stripped of flesh and filled with with gypsum, pitch, lead, and sulfur.
With the dragon occupied Alexander orders two big brass balls heated and shoved into its mouth, whereupon it dies. In a Turkish telling he attaches a thousand poison hooks to his chariot, takes an antidote against the poison, rides in and boldly vanquishes the dragon.
Any way the story goes, Alexander receives the unicorn hare as a gift. In early versions the little terror has no name. Al-Mi'raj is applied to the unicorn hare in later writings.
Comments