This gilded silver plate features a dog-head bird known as a simurg (alternatively senmurw). It appears in a number of Iranian and Zoroastrian fables, in various guises. According to some accounts the simurg nests in the Tree of Knowledge, where it beats its wings to scatter seeds throughout creation. In other tales the enchanted simurg serves as a divine messenger, while in the Sufi poetic work the Mantiq al-Tayr, the simurg is the king of all birds.

The simurg may be depicted as a bird with a human head, or the head of a dog; however, is most often depicted as we see here, with the head of a dog, forefeet of a lion, and body and wings of a dragon. It became a very popular design motif, repeated in textile patterns, on metalwork, and even served to decorate architecture, as exemplified by a stucco plaque also in the British Museum collection. The motif was exported both east into Asia and west to the Mediterranean; in Europe, a variation of the simurg was commonly included in heraldry designs.