With the recent references to the Qur’an and Arabic words
hidden in the panels, I decided to do some research and came across some
interesting things on ghouls in Arabic folklore.
*Note not to confuse folklore with Islamic doctrine
(they don’t appear in the Qu’ran or Bible, but do in both Muslim and Christian tales). I am also new to some of this, so please feel free to add or correct me!
The mythological Arabian “ghul” (corpse-eaters) could have derived
from the Babylonian/Assyrian underworld monsters “gallu”, which also refers to dangerous
human adversaries.
Sinibad visits Dr. Kanou’s lab
They frequent One and One Thousand Nights, often opposing Sinibad; Hadith, countless parables, old wives tales, and so on.
Shiqqs.
While the description of shiqq ghouls are literal halves of
men (one eye, one arm, one leg), there’s a particular description told by a
Boudin traveling companion:
[It
had] ‘a cyclops’ eye set in the midst of her human-like head, long beak of
jaws, in the ends one or two great sharp tusks, long neck; her arms like
chicken’ fledgling wings, the fingers of her hands not divided; the body big as
a camel’s, but in shape as the ostrich; the
sex is only feminine, she has a foot as the ass’ hoof, and a foot as an
ostrich. She entices passengers, calling to them over the waste by their names,
so that they think it is their own mother’s or their sister’s voice….