According to Genesis, Noah brought seven pairs of every kind of clean animal onto the ark.
Genesis 7:2 distinguishes clean animals from animals that were not classified as clean. It tells Noah to take seven pairs of clean animals, male and female, but one pair of animals that were not clean. Genesis 7:3 separately mentions seven pairs of birds.
Many retellings summarize the ark story as having two of every animal. That phrase reflects the one-pair instruction for unclean animals and the broad popular image of the story, but it leaves out the special number given for clean animals. Genesis 6:19–20 first gives a general instruction to bring male-and-female pairs of living creatures.
The distinction is connected with later biblical categories of clean and unclean animals, especially in dietary and sacrificial contexts. Genesis does not provide a modern biological species count; its wording concerns kinds of animals within the story’s ancient classification system.