Ziz
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The ziz is a giant bird in Jewish mythology, said to be large enough to be able to block out the sun with its wingspan; perhaps somewhat similar to a roc.
According to tradition, the meat of this bird will be served as a meal, along with the behemoth and the leviathan, Siyum Hiyat HaMatim in the banquet offered the righteous following the Resurrection at End Times. The Persian Simurgh, which is arguably a fifth accompaniment to the Kar, the Khara, the Hadhayosh, and another bird, the Chamrosh, has been said to be equated by the rabbis with the ziz, their three future-meal giant animals corresponding to the archetypal creatures of Persian mythology. The trio of behemoth, leviathan and ziz was traditionally a favorite decoration motif for rabbis living in Germany.
Some say that the ziz was created to protect all of the class Aves and that if the ziz did not exist, all the smaller birds on Earth would be helpless and would have been killed.
The giant Ziz lives on in children's literature. He figures prominently in a story from Gertrude Landa's (also known as Aunt Naomi) 1919 collection Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends entitled "The Princess of the Tower." In 2001, he appeared in a children's book entitled The Hardest Word, written by Jacqueline Jules and illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn. Two other books followed--Noah and the Ziz and The Ziz and the Hanukkah Miracle--making the Ziz a continuing character in Jewish children's literature.
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