Anqā’ Mughrib

there is an old arabic saying about the three things you will never find in real life:

they called the bird ‘Anqā’ Mughrib (عنقاء مغرب).

the story goes that it was created with unmatched beauty. long neck, huge span, every color imaginable. but it never stayed still. it stayed in the far west, always beyond where anyone could reach.

people spent lifetimes tracking rumors of where it landed.

nobody ever caught it. but nobody stopped looking either, why?

It depiction is described in such a way the anqa is vast enough to receive whatever you put into it.

you can paint it in a way that makes you comfortable chasing it. you can control its beauty. you can decide what it promises. you can imagine the exact future that would begin if you finally reached it.

it never has to disappoint you, because its substance exists purely in anticipation.

eventually actually reach it, you stop and look at what you’re holding, you realize it didn’t quite match the anqa you imagined, and then you raise again to chase the anqa.

the bird didn’t need to exist. it just needed to keep you running.