Explore "The Rukh" by Jorge Luis Borges on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Rukh (or as it is sometimes given, roc) is a vast magnification of the eagle or vulture, and some people have thought that a condor blown astray over the Indian Ocean or China seas suggested it to the Arabs. Lane rejects this idea and considers that we are dealing rather with a ‘fabulous species of a fabulous genus' or with a synonym for the Persian Simurgh. The Rukh is known to the West through the Arabian Nights, The reader will recall that Sindbad (on his second voyage), left behind by his shipmates on an island, found a huge white dome rising in air and of vast compass. I walked all around it, but found no door thereto, nor could I muster strength or nimbleness by reason of its exceeding smoothness and slipperiness. So I marked the spot where I stood and went round about the dome to measure its circumference which I found fifty good paces.
Moments later, a huge cloud hid the sun from him and lifting my head. I saw that the cloud was none other than an enormous bird, of gigantic girth and inordinately wide of wing . . .