In Arabian mythology, the roc is the enormous bird said to be powerful enough to carry off elephants.
The roc, also called the rukh or rukhkh, is a legendary bird of prey from Middle Eastern storytelling and geographical lore. It became especially famous through the Arabian Nights, where it appears during Sinbad the Sailor’s second voyage. In that episode, Sinbad encounters a gigantic egg and escapes by fastening himself to the roc’s leg.
Stories describe the bird as so vast that it can seize elephants, carry them through the air, or feed them to its young. Its enormous egg and shadow-blotting wings emphasize the scale of the legend rather than describe a zoological species.
The roc is sometimes confused with the Persian simurgh, the Greek phoenix, or the North American thunderbird. Those birds belong to different traditions and have different roles. One proposed inspiration for roc stories is Madagascar’s extinct elephant bird, Aepyornis, whose huge eggs may have reached travelers, although that flightless bird could not fly or carry elephants.