The Fabulous Creature Buraq

Unknown

ca. 1660–80 · Opaque watercolor and gold on paper · Islamic Art

Buraq, the beast on which Muhammad is said to have made his "night journey," is depicted, without a rider, as a fantastic creature with the face of a beautiful woman. The body is a composite of many small animals, fish, and birds—a convention generally popular in the eastern Islamic world. The unusually subdued palette is found in a number of paintings and album borders from Golconda, while the portrait is stylistically related to a Bijapur type.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1660–80

Medium

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Purchase, Rogers Fund, Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen Gift, in memory of Richard Ettinghausen, and Ehsan Yarshater Gift, 1992