Legends tell of a jinn king so old he was present in ancient Babylon, served in the court of King Solomon, head Muhammad speak, and still lives even today.

A thread on the jinn king of Venus, Zawb'ah

Zawb’ah is a mighty being with an ancient and complicated history. He governs matters of love, diplomacy, beauty, and enchantment.

Traditionally he is depicted as having multiple heads, reflecting his ever shifting moods.

You can see him above from the Kitab Al Bulhan

His palace is fashioned of bronze and emerald and he adorns himself in the finest silks.

Like his counterpart, the jinn king of the sun, he is linked to a type of oracular prophecy.

Legend says he and his Ifrits would eavesdrop on conversations in heaven and share the secrets they learned in oracles and possession rites.

Soothsayers would enter into trances and mystic fits uttering pithy prophecies.

But one day the jinn found their path barred by angels armed with fiery missiles.

Perturbed, Zawb’ah set off to discover what had changed. It was then he discovered the arrival of a new prophet, Muhammad.

Zawb’ah is said to be one of the jinn along Shamhurish who sat and listened to Muhammad recite the Qu’ran and like Shamhurish converted to Islam.

Zaw’bah is also said to have a unique relationship to King Solomon, serving as one of his commander jinn.

He was tasked to protect and govern Yemen and it is said he served under the wisdom of the Queen of Sheba.

Under their joint direction, Zawb’ah built the beautiful palaces of Aden and the mighty fortresses across the region.

Upon the death of the King of Solomon, Zawba’h discovered a treasure trove of magical books buried under the throne of the king and taught the ancient sorcery to his court. Zawb’ah is thus said to have a unique relationship to sorcery, particularly enchantment and natural magic.

Magical rites are used to invoke Zawba’h’s power to create love between two people and in charms of binding. One tells of a ring of power made with bronze or copper and depicting a woman with a comb, or an apple made when the Moon is in Libra or Taurus and making good aspects.

Made with the proper invocations to Zawb’ah and through the secret names, the ring grants its wearer the love of any they desire, the favor of women, and bends all flying birds to their will.

The most fascinating story however is the legend of Venus herself, for she too was a jinn.

The Qu’ran makes reference to two angels, Harut and Marut sent to humanity as a test. The reference is allusive and assumes some familiarity on the part of the reader.

While the Qur’an makes clear the angels did not err, later commentaries would analyze and expand on it. In a series of debated traditions related by Ibn Abbas, Mas’ud and recorded in Tabari, Harut and Marut become associated with magic.

The two angels descend to Babylon of old where they live among humans.

One day they encounter a beautiful and cunning woman, Baidukh. They are enchanted with her and she in turn has a voracious appetite for knowledge. So they teach her magic and astrology.

But they also teach her that which was forbidden, the Secret Name. They tried to conceal their transgression, but the heavens watched aghast.

When they attempted to return to paradise, their wings refused to budge. So they turned to the prophet Idris and begged aid.

They were given a choice, punishment on earth or in the hereafter.

They chose earth and thus were hung by their ankles in a well in Babylon until the end of days.

Now what to do with Baidukh.

She possessed too much knowledge, so God lifted her into heaven where she became Al Zuhara or Venus.

The earliest strata of the narrative treats Baidukh as a wise woman, but later commentators would transform her more into a temptress and she would go from human to a jinn and become the daughter of Iblis, the devil in Islamic cosmology.

Forbidden magic would become her realm and it was claimed sorcerers would make pacts with her to gain their power and seal the deal by laying with her.

Everything about this story is fascinating. Firstly, the overall narrative shares parallels with Biblical and extra-biblical stories that once more reinforce the late antique religious milieu of the Qur’an and its commentators.

It also speaks to the relationship to knowledge. Qatada and Al Suddi analyze the tale to demarcate between forbidden and acceptable knowledge.

They distinguish between the type of magic of practiced by some which was illicit versus the magic of Harut and Marut which was a type of power related to spiritual science and therefore acceptable.

Other commentaries would completely reject the notion, arguing Haurt and Marut were a temptation for humans, but they did not err and only devils taught magic. Tabari would go so far as to say the angels were actually Michael & Gabriel where Harut & Marut were themselves human.

The story also links to Idris who in Islamic understanding would be associated with Enoch and Hermes.

In astrological understanding, Venus’ attributes become not only the domain of love, but the realm of natural magic, enchantment, sorcery, and knowledge that straddle the border between forbidden and acceptable, natural and technical, chaos and order, and prophecy and madness.

Zawba'h is said to have a relationship with the jinn king of the Sun and the jinn king of Mars reflecting the astrological relationship between these three planets.

In my past podcast I covered astrological talismans and in October's episode I'll be going more in depth on the history of astrology in the Islamic world https://www.patreon.com/headonhistory 

The gendered element of Venus’ story cannot be overlooked. Her transformation from cunning wise woman raised up into a star to a jinn temptress and daughter of the devil is a telling one.

I'll cover the rest of the jinn kings in future threads