Abu Sa'd' Ubayd-Allah ibn Ibrahim, known as Ibn Bakhtishu (d. 1058), Manāfi˓-i al-ḥayavā (The Benefits of Animals), in Persian , Between 1297 and 1300, Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1912 , MS M.500 (fol. 11r)
The King of Animals
One of the most beautiful of all surviving Persian manuscripts, this work describes the nature of humans, animals, birds, reptiles, fish, and insects as well as the medicinal properties and benefits of their various parts. The lion, according to the text, "is the strongest and most powerful" animal, yet "he is afraid of a white rooster and a mouse.... He flees from nothing as he does from a little ant." When he senses he is being followed by a hunter, "he effaces his footprints behind him with the end of his tail." As for the lion's medicinal benefits, "the tooth of a lion tied on a child makes teething easy."