Al-Buraq
Celestial SteedIslamic FolkloreHeavenly MessengerLightWinged Creature
Lore
Al-Buraq is a divine, celestial steed — a luminous, winged creature that bridges earth and the heavens. It carries the scent of ozone and desert wind, pierced with faint notes of myrrh and crushed stone; its sound is a distant, whispering wingbeat, like silk brushing stone at midnight; its temperature reads cool and radiant, as if lit from within rather than warmed from without. Field notes: sightings are fleeting; light seems to bend at its edges, hooves do not scar sand or cloud, and nearby air tightens into a clear, electrified hush.
Origin: Islamic (Hadith tradition) • Arabian Peninsula / Levant
Classification: Deity
Field Notes
Observations
- A sudden, silent shaft of moving light against the sky, accompanied by a thin, chilled gust and a sharp ozone tang.
Encounter Advice
- taboo: Do not attempt to seize, mount, command, or bind it. Avoid mockery, disrespectful depiction, or treating the encounter as spectacle; do not chase or pursue a sighting.
- reverence: Respond with humility and silence: withdraw quickly and reverently, offer a brief prayer or respectful words, and refrain from demanding signs. Honor its role as a sacred conveyance rather than a trophy.
- offering: Quiet offerings are favored in folklore: a small libation of water, a handful of dates, incense, or a whispered prayer — gestures of respect rather than bargaining.
Abilities
- Isra & Mi'raj TransitPerforms an instantaneous, divinely-ordained passage that carries rider from earthly locales into celestial realms in the space of a night.
- Horizon StrideLeaps between horizons in a single bound, leaving a radiant trail that severs mundane pursuit and confuses trackers.
- Face of RecognitionIts humanlike visage discerns prophetic authority and will calm, counsel, or refuse riders according to divine sanction.
Weaknesses
- Bound to Prophetic ServiceRefuses to bear anyone lacking prophetic or divinely-sanctioned status; forcible attempts to ride it break its stride and strip its celestial swiftness.
- Profane Use PenaltyIf compelled into profane violence or used as a warbeast (e.g., ridden to commit sacrilege in a sacred precinct), it loses access to miraculous transit and becomes sluggish.
- Divine Command LinkFunctions only within the parameters of divine will—absolute control by mundane magic or coercion is impossible and can render it immaterial or absent.