Arabic Mythology

Zaqqum

by

Tradition / Region: Arabic Mythology
Alternate Names: Tree of Hell, Infernal Tree
Category: Plant

The Myth

Deep in the center of Hell there is said to grow a dreadful tree known as Zaqqum. Its roots sink into the fire itself, and its trunk rises from the depths of torment, nourished not by water or soil but by flame and suffering.

The tree bears fruit, yet its fruit is not a blessing. Its growths are said to resemble twisted heads, foul and terrifying to behold. The damned are driven by hunger to eat from it, though they know what awaits them. When they swallow the fruit, it burns inside their bodies, scorching their stomachs like molten metal. Afterward they are forced to drink boiling liquid, which only deepens their torment.

The tree stands as part of the landscape of punishment, feeding those who cannot escape it. Its branches spread through the infernal realm, and its presence reminds the inhabitants of Hell that their suffering is unending.

Thus Zaqqum is remembered as the tree of fire and bitterness — a plant rooted in the depths of the unseen world, whose fruit is not life but the taste of punishment itself.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Zaqqum. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaqqum.

Interpretive Lenses

Religious Readings
  • Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
  • Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
  • Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
  • Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
  • Marxist Deep Dive

Tree of Waq Waq

by

Tradition / Region: Arabic mythology
Alternate Names: Waqwaq Tree, Tree of Women, Waq Waq Islands Tree
Category: Plant

The Myth

Far beyond the known seas, on distant and mysterious islands, travelers spoke of a marvelous tree unlike any other. This was the Tree of Waq Waq, a tree said not to bear fruit, but living beings.

From its branches grew figures shaped like humans. In some tellings they were small children, hanging from the limbs like strange blossoms. In others, especially in the western Islamic lands, the fruits of the tree were beautiful women. They formed gradually, swelling and ripening as if nourished by the tree itself, until they were complete.

When the time came, the figures would detach and fall to the ground. As they dropped, they gave out a sharp cry — “Waq! Waq!” — the sound from which the tree took its name. Some were said to live after falling, while others perished the moment they struck the earth, like fruit that had ripened only to spoil.

Sailors, merchants, and scholars repeated stories of these islands, placing them somewhere at the edges of the world, beyond India or near the lands of the rising sun. Some described entire shores lined with these trees, their branches heavy with human forms swaying in the wind.

Because the tree produced only women in certain accounts, it was said that this was how the island’s people reproduced, the tree itself sustaining their lineage generation after generation.

Thus the Tree of Waq Waq stood in legend as one of the wonders of the world — a living tree whose fruit was human life itself.

Gallery

Sources

Sibree, J. (1896). Madagascar before the conquest: The island, the country, and the people, with chapters on travel and topography, folk-lore, strange customs and superstitions, the animal life of the island, and mission work and progress among the inhabitants. New York: Macmillan; London: T. F. Unwin.

Interpretive Lenses

Religious Readings
  • Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
  • Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
  • Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
  • Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
  • Marxist Deep Dive

Caspilly

by

Tradition / Region: Arabic Mythology, Persian Mythology
Alternate Names: Caspilli; Neemora (Persian)
Category: Fish

The Myth

Sailors of the warm seas spoke of a fish both terrible and marvelous, known among the Arabs as the Caspilly and among the Persians as the Neemora. It was said to dwell in the Arabian Gulf and the wider Indian Ocean, feared by all who sailed those waters.

The Caspilly was described as almost as wide as it was long, yet no more than two feet in length. Its body bore no scales; instead, its skin was rough, spiked, and barbed like that of a shark. From its forehead grew a long, lancet-shaped horn, sometimes said to be longer than a man’s arm. When not in use, this horn lay folded back along its neck.

When hunger seized it, the Caspilly attacked the first creature it encountered. With a sudden thrust, it drove its horn into the belly of its prey, leaving it to bleed to death in the water. Its teeth were venomous, and even a single bite meant certain death. Yet paradoxically, the body of a dead Caspilly, laid upon such a wound, was said to draw out the poison and save the victim. Its horn was prized above all, believed to hold powerful medicinal virtues.

Another tale spoke of a similar fish in the seas near Peru, bearing a sword-like horn three feet long. This creature was said to hunt whales. It would slip beneath the great beast, stab it in the navel, and retreat while the wounded whale thrashed in agony, sometimes capsizing nearby ships. Only once the whale was dead would the fish return to feed at its leisure.

In later tellings, these stories were woven together. The Caspilly grew even more fearsome, its horn stretching to four feet in length, and its appetite expanding to make it the terror of the Arabian seas. Sailors claimed that local hunters pursued it with giant hooks baited with camel meat. When the Caspilly struck, it would exhaust itself fighting the line, allowing the hunters to shoot it with arrows, haul it aboard, and beat it to death.

Its flesh was said to be edible, and its horn—called caspilly alicorn—was believed to rival the unicorn’s horn in its power to counter venom.

Thus the Caspilly lived on in sailors’ lore: a spined, horned killer of fish and whales alike, born from the dangers of the sea and the fearful imagination of those who crossed it.

Gallery

Sources

A Book of Creatures contributors. (n.d.). Caspilly. In A Book of Creatures, from https://abookofcreatures.com/2015/03/15/caspilly/

Interpretive Lenses

Religious Readings
  • Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
  • Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
  • Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
  • Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
  • Marxist Deep Dive
Other
  • How to Invite The Caspilly