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In The Arabian Nights, the Roc appears on a tropical island during Sinbad’s second voyage.
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In the 13th century, Marco Polo claimed that the Roc flew to Madagascar “from the Southern regions,” and that the Great Khan sent messengers who returned with a feather from the giant beast. Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta tells of a mountain hovering in the air over the China Sea in his renowned travelogue The Travels (1369 C.E.). The creature appears in Near Eastern geographies and natural history, popularized in Arabian fairy tales and sailors’ folklore. The English form originates from the Arabic ruḵḵ. Sinbad’s next adventure takes him to a mysterious island where he encounters the legendary bird of prey known as the Roc. It was said to rise to the surface from the depths of the sea, enticing unwitting sailors with its island appearance to make landfall before pulling them down below. The name aspidochelone appears to be a compound word combing Greek aspis (shield) and chelone (turtle). Regardless of its form, it was often mistaken for an island and appeared rocky with crevices, trees, and greenery all about. Found in ancient compendiums and medieval bestiaries, the creature was variously described as a large whale or sea turtle with huge spines on the ridge of its back. This creature of legend traces its origin back to a fabled sea creature known as aspidochelone. Sinbad and his fellow seafarers soon find out that the island is in fact perched atop the back of a blue whale that makes its way to the surface every once in a while before diving back into the depths of the ocean whence it came.
AL SINDBAD ARABIC CARTOON SERIES
One of the earliest episodes in the series explores the legend of the mysterious floating island that only makes an appearance once in a blue moon.