Note 498 — Chapter V · THE MOST PROMINENT FIGURES IN HEBREW MYTHOLOGY. (continued 2)

Which according to al-Damîrî, Ḥayât al-ḥaywân, Bûlâḳ 1274, II. 219, is used only of the rising sun; we can say ṭalaʿat al-ġazâlâ ‘the gazelle rises,’ but not ġarabat ‘he sets.’ Abû Saʿîd al-Rustamî the poet (in Behâ al-Dîn al-ʿÂmilî, Keshkûl, p. 164. 13) carries out the mythological figure still further, using the verb naṭaḥa ‘to butt,’ said of horned beasts. Describing a fine building, he says tanâṭaḥa ḳarna-sh-shamsi min sharafâtihi, that ‘as to splendour it butts in rivalry with the sun’—as if the palace and the sun were knocking their horns together.