The Donkey King

The 13th-century Arabic grimoire al-Sakkk''s Kitb al-Shmil (Book of the Complete) provides numerous methods of contacting jinn. The first such jinn described Ab Isr''l Bzayn ibn Sulaymn arrives with a donkey. In the course of offering an explanation for his ritual this Element reveals the double-sided nature of asinine symbology and explains why this animal has served as the companion of both demons and prophets. Focusing on two nodes of donkey symbologythe phallus and the bray-it reveals a coincidentia oppositorum in a deceptively humble and comic animal form. Thus the donkey bearer of a demonic voice and of a phallus symbolic of base materiality also represents transcendence of the material and protection from the demonic. In addition to Arabic literature and occult rituals the Element refers to evidence from the ancient Near East Egypt and Greece as well as to medieval Jewish and Christian texts.