Shahrokh (mythical bird)


Shahrokh, Shahrukh, Shahroze, or Shah Rukh is the name of a mythological bird in Iranian literature. It is built of two parts: Shah meaning a king, and Rukh, another enormous mythological bird. In the One Thousand and One Nights stories, Rukh helps Sinbad escape from a dangerous island.
Shah Rukh, therefore, means king of the Rokh. It may also be written as Shaahinrokh or Avestan Saeenrokh.. This has been converted to saeem-rokh, then seem-rokh, seem-rogh and vulgarised as see-morgh. Seemorgh is also known in mystics’ ideas as the king of birds or God. People have mistaken the word with See and morgh and believed it means Thirty-Bird.
Soleiman Haim in his Persian-English Dictionary has translated Shahrokh as "The Great Rook" and according to "A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary" Shahrokh means "The horn of a rhinoceros; the rooks in chess; a title given to the sons of the nobility; name of a son of Timure."