Bahamut

Bahamut.

The Bahamut, also called Lutīyā, is a colossal fish-like beast that according to Arabian myth acts as one of the layers that supports the Earth.

Description

In Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings, Bahamut is one of the Aspidochelone, a race of titanic beings that once roamed the primeval Earth long before man ever set foot on it. As with most Aspidochelone, it is described as being so immense that a human cannot bear its sight;" the seas of the world, placed in one of the fish's nostrils, would be like a mustard seed laid in the desert.

Overview

Seeing that it is among the Aspidochelone, it is safe to say that the Bahamut descended from the Leviathan. One account describes Bahamut as a fish floating in water, supported by darkness. In Arabian myth, the fish has a bull called Kujata that stands atop it, on the bull, a ruby mountain; on the mountain, an angel; the angel holds and supports the seven earths. In another account, Bahamut supports a bed of sand, on which stands a bull, on whose back rests a rock which holds the waters in which the earth is located. Beneath the fish are layers of suffocating wind, a veil of darkness, and mist.

Yaqut al-Hamawi, an Arab geographer, also gives the account that Iblis almost incited the whale Balhūt into causing a quake, but God distracted it by sending gnats to its eyes. Or alternatively, God had sent a sword-like fish that bedazzled and captivated the giant fish. This account is also found in al-Tha'labi's Qiṣaṣ al-anbīyāʾ, but in that version God forces the whale (Lutīyā) into submission by sending a creature that invaded through its nose and reached its brain.