The image, most agree, is of the pen, '
fugles wyn', dipping its after-life beak over the rim of the metallic-brown inkwell.
The Old English version, found in the Exeter Book alongside the famous riddle collection, depicts the flight of that bird as hidden from enemies on earth (Was pass
fugles flyht feondum on eorpan / dyrne ond degol, pam pe deorc gewit / haefdon on hrepre, heortan staenne) (Krapp and Dobbie, III.20-21).
God ana wat, cyning aelmihtig, hu his gecynde bid, wifhades pe weres; paet ne wat aenig monnes cynnes, butan meotod ana, hu pa wisan sind wundorlice, faeger fyrngesceap, ymb paes fugles gebyrd.
The phoenix's land has no sign of woe (51, "weatacen"); the sun is God's bright sign (96, "torht tacen Godes") and a sign of life (254, "lifes tacen"), just as the phoenix is; the love of God in the hearts of the faithful is the high tree in which the phoenix builds its nest, away from the sign of deceit (450, "facnes tacne") in God's enemies; the resurrection of the dead will be accompanied by the radiant sign of the bird (510, "fugles tacen").
God ana wat, Cyning aelmihtig hu his gecynde bio, wifehades pe weres; paet ne wat aenig monna cynnes butan Meotod ana hu pa wisan sind wundorlice, faeger fyrngesceap ymb paes
fugles gebyrd.
(35) See Exeter Book Riddle 26, in which the scribe's quill is described as
fugles wyn" 'the joy of the bird" (7b).