The phoenix is always a bird, usually having plumage of colors corresponding to fire: THE PHOINIX (Phoenix) was a fabulous, red-gold feathered bird whose body emitted rays of pure sunlight. The creature lived for five hundred years and feasted upon Arabian balsalm and frankinsense. When it died a new Phoinix emerged fully-grown from its body. It then encased its parent in an egg of myrrh and conveyed it to the great Egyptian temple of the Sun-God in Heliopolis.