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(279) , ch. XXVII. and Sale's notes. D'Herbelot, p. 182.

This monster is represented as a fierce flying hydra, and belongs to the same class with the rakshe whose ordinary food was serpents and dragons; the soham, which had the head of a horse, with four eyes, and the body of a flame-coloured dragon; the syl, a basilisk with a face resembling the human, but so tremendous that no mortal could bear to behold it; the ejder, and others. See these respective titles in Richardson's Persian, Arabic, and English Dictionary.

Nothing could have been more appositely imagined than this compellation. Eblis, according to Arabian mythology, had suffered a degradation from his primeval rank, and was consigned to these regions, for having refused to worship Adam, in obedience to the supreme command: alledging in justification of his refusal, that himself had been formed of etherial fire, whilst Adam was only a creature of clay. Al Koran, c. 55, &c.