After Noah’s Ark, the Genesis account identifies the rainbow as the sign of God’s covenant.
Genesis 9 describes a covenant between God, Noah, his descendants, and every living creature after the flood. God says that the rainbow in the clouds will serve as a sign of this covenant and links it with the promise that waters will not again become a flood destroying all life.
The rainbow is therefore presented as a recurring visible sign in the sky, not as an object carried from the ark. The covenant follows Noah’s sacrifice after leaving the vessel and forms the concluding theological scene of the flood story.
The dove and olive leaf are related to the ark narrative but have a different role: they signal that the floodwaters are receding. They are not the covenant sign named in Genesis 9.