It was a fabulous, red-gold feathered bird whose body emitted rays of pure sunlight. The creature lived for five hundred years and feasted upon Arabian balsam and frankincense. When it died, a new Phoenix emerged fully-grown from its body. It then encased its parent in an egg of myrrh and conveyed it to the great Egyptian temple of the Sun-God in Heliopolis.
Digital Maps of the Ancient World 