Utnapishtim is the closest counterpart to Noah in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In the Mesopotamian epic, Utnapishtim is warned by the god Ea that the gods intend to send a devastating flood. He builds a large boat, preserves living creatures and craftsmen, and survives the disaster. Afterward, he releases birds to determine whether the waters have receded, a sequence that invites comparison with Noah’s Ark.
The parallel is not an identity: Utnapishtim belongs to Mesopotamian literature, while Noah belongs to the Hebrew Bible. Their stories differ in the names and motives of the divine beings, the vessel’s instructions, the flood’s chronology, and the hero’s later fate.
Utnapishtim tells his story to Gilgamesh, who seeks the secret of immortality. The episode appears on Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, making it one of the best-known ancient flood narratives outside Genesis.