Muhammad Bin Yaya...

Muhammad Bin Yaya, from Ahmad Bin Muhammad, from Muhammad Bin Al Hassan Al Ashary, from; Abu Al-Hassan Al-Reza -asws said: ‘The elephant is a morphed (creature), it was an adulterous king; and the wolf was morphed, it was a Bedouin pimp; and the rabbit was morphed, it was a woman who betrayed her husband, and did not wash from her menstruations; and the bat was morphed, it was (a thief) stealing dates of the people; and the monkey and the pigs were a people from the Children of Israel, having exceeded in the Sabbath; and the sea bass and the lizard were a sect from the Children of Israel who did not believe when the meal was descended upon Isa -as Bin Maryam -as , so they strayed and a sect fell into the sea, and a sect in the land; and the mouse, so it was an immoral woman; and the scorpion was a malicious gossiper; and the bear and the wasp were butchers who used to steal (cheat) in the weighing’.

[17] وعنه بهذا الاسناد، عن محمد بن أسلم، عن الحسين بن خالد، قال: سألت أبا الحسن موسى (ع) هل يحل أكل لحم الفيل؟ – فقال: لا، فقلت: ولم؟ – قال: لانه مثلة وقد حرم الله لحوم الامساخ ولحوم ما مثل به في صورها. And from him, by this chain, from Muhammad Bin Aslam, from Al Husayn Bin Khalid who said, ‘I asked Abu Al-Hassan Musa – asws , ‘Is it Permissible to eat the flesh of the elephant?’ So the Imam – asws said: ‘No’.

So I said, ‘And why not?’ He – asws said: ‘Because it is a resemblance (to those who had sinned and were transformed into elephants) [18] , and Allah – azwj has Forbidden the flesh of the metamorphosed one and what resembles it in its image’.