Waqwaq Tree



The Waqwaq Tree is a giant tree that bears human-like fruit in Arabian and Persian lore. It is similar to the Japanese Jinmenju, another human-like tree.

Description
The Waqwaq is a Persian oracular tree, originating from India, whose branches or fruits become heads of men, women or monstrous animals (depending on version) screaming "Waq-Waq", which means screams in Persian.

The Waqwaq tree is a familiar element in Persian tales and legends.

Legends
In 859 AD the basrien writer Jahiz described this tree as populated with both animals and women hanging by their hair.

The legend of the WaqWaq tree became widely known from the tenth century on in the Wonders literature, such as The Book of Wonders of India, where travelers and navigators claimed to have seen strange things: "'Mohammed ben Bâbichâd told me from what he had heard from one of those who went to Waq Waq: that there were large trees. sometimes with elongated rounded leaves that bear fruit like squash, but bigger, that have a human face: when the wind stirs the leaves, a voice comes out, and the inside fills with air, like the pods of the milkweed. If they are detached from the tree, the air escapes at once and they become flat and flabby like a piece of skin. '"This strange tree gained attention from famous Arabian scholars, such as Zakarīyā’ ibn Muḥammad al-Qazwīnī, who claimed to have sighted the tree in the thirteenth century; he also described it as a tree crying.

Ajâb'ib Nâmeh of Tusi Salmani in 1388 also claimed to have seen the tree in The Book of Curiosities. However, he gave a very different description. He wrote that the tree was decorated symmetrically with the heads of human females, birds, horses, ducks, monkeys, hares, foxes, cocks, and rams. It supposedly ate these animals and their heads bloomed from its branches like flowers.