The Semites and the Hebrews who came later had a variety of different mythological animals, they are as follows:
Alitha: A beast capable of extinquishing any fire.
Alukah: Alukah means “horse leech” was a creature that fed on the blood of animals it was later identified with demons, vampires and werewolves.
Avarshina: The Canaanite/Hebrew word for Phoenix.
Bar Juchne: Also known as “Ziz” it was a collasal bird with a wingspan capable of blocking out the sun and was ruler of the air in a trinity along with Behemoth and Leviathan (depicted right). The Bar Juchne was said to cause destruction when tossing its gigantic eggs from heaven.
Behemoth: A gigantic creature and ruler of the earth in a trinity with Ziz and Leviathan (depicted right) it was said that it had a tail like a cedar causing some to depict it as a dinosaur while in later demonology it would be equated with an elephant it was said that only Behemoths own bones could harm it, it was also said to drink rivers dry.
Broxa: A bird of shape-shifter said to feed on goats milk.
Leviathan: A giant sea serpent and ruler of the seas in a trinity with Behemoth and Ziz (depicted right). At the end of the Bible God is said to feed the people on the corpse of Leviathan which was so great and terrible only God himself could capture and contain it. The word Leviathan is used as a replacement for Samael and Lilith in certain old Bible passages possibly related to the two being connected via a force called “Tanin’iver” (meaning blind dragon) since the word “Tanin” means “sea serpent”, in this text God castrates the Male Leviathan to prevent their offspring from overpopularing the world. Due to this connection with Samael and Lilith, Leviathan would appear in later works on demonology. In Kabbalistic astrology Leviathan describes a percieved emination of the star sign Pisces.
Phoenix: The Phoenician word for Phoenix. A large bird (depicted left) that gatheted up sacred incenses to make its nest every hundred or thousand years it would self-immolate being born anew from its funeral pyre thus it was a symbol of rejuvenation, resurrection and rebirth.
Re’em: The Hebrew word for Unicorn sometimes taken to mean a mythical type of ox.
Shamir: Also called “Solomons Shamir” (depicted central). The Shamir is described as a worm which has the power to disintegrate anything and may draw parallels with the Alchemical universal solvent - “Alkahest”. King Solomon is said to have used the Shamir in place of tools to build his temple and the Shamir is usually stated to have been a gift to him from the demon king Asmodeus. Moses was said to have used the Shamir to carve the priestly breast plates that contained Urim and Thummin. The Shamir was sent by God to free the demons bound to Solomons will as Solomon died proped up by his staff observing his demonic slaves efforts, not knowing their master had died they continued to labour until the Shamir came along and ate through the staff causing Solomon to fall down and the demons, realising he had died, escaped.
Tzavua: A vicious beast with 365 colours in its fur.
