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Series:   Elements in Magic

The Donkey King

Asinine Symbology in Ancient and Medieval Magic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2023

Emily Selove
Emily Selove
Affiliation:
University of Exeter

Summary

The 13th-century Arabic grimoire, al-Sakkākī's Kitāb al-Shāmil (Book of the Complete), provides numerous methods of contacting jinn. The first such jinn described, Abū Isrā'īl Būzayn ibn Sulaymān, 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 symbology—the 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.
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Keywords

Arabicdonkeymagicmicrocosmoccultphallus
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Magic
Online ISBN: 9781009076234
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 21 December 2023

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The Donkey King
  • Emily Selove, University of Exeter
  • Online ISBN: 9781009076234
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The Donkey King
  • Emily Selove, University of Exeter
  • Online ISBN: 9781009076234
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The Donkey King
  • Emily Selove, University of Exeter
  • Online ISBN: 9781009076234
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