Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat (Arabic: عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات) or The Wonders of Creatures and the Marvels of Creation is an important work of paradoxography and cosmography by Zakariya al-Qazwini, who was born in Qazwin in 1203 shortly before the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire.

Qazwini's cosmography is not pure science but was intended to entertain its readers by enriching scientific explanations with stories and poetry.

[2] The second part discusses the terrestrial: the four elements, the seven climes, seas and rivers, a sort of bestiary on the animal kingdom (including mankind and the jinns), the plants, and minerals.

Qazwini says that the earth was swinging in all directions until God created an angel to bear it on his shoulders and steady it with his hands.

[8][9][10][c] Qazwini's cosmography above has been compared to a similar entry in Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mu'jam al-Buldan[14] and ibn al-Wardi's Kharīdat al-'Ajā'ib, with minor differences noted.

[8] When discussing time, Qazwini makes the parallel comparison of the Islamic, Roman and Iranian calendars.

Qazwini also mentions the angels who carry the Throne of God (the idea goes back to the Jahiliyya): they are four in number in the form of a man, bull, eagle and lion.

In folk Islam, Iblis is believed to be present in baths, bazaars, crossroads, and intoxicating drinks and is associated with flutes, poetry, tattoos, lies and illnesses.

Jinn and ghouls are then considered terrestrial beings, occupying a place between animals and humanity, and discussed in the second part of Al-qazwini's work.

[2] The earth, being part of the lower spheres, brings forth minerals, plants, and living creatures such as animals and humans.

Humanity has the highest rank in the order of God's creation (macrocosm): he is its quintessence (microcosm) and can be both the embodiment of the angels and Satan.

Humanity has a rational soul and can think, talk, and choose to ascend to the highest or lowest stations in life.

According to a legend, the jinn were created before Adam and lived on the land, sea, plains and mountains and God's mercy for them was boundless.

In more recent traditions, the Anqa is a wise bird with experience gained throughout many ages and gives warnings and moral advice.

Qazwini talks about the hoopoe, which has a central role in Iranian mysticism, only in passing; here, it is described as being able to see water from afar but not the mesh that is in front of its eyes.

Qazwini discusses theories of the subsequent mating of animals of several species to produce the giraffe, which sports the spotted skin of a leopard, the sloping back of a hyena and also resembles a camel and a cow.

One stone, the bahta, is described as being found at the edge of the utmost darkness where the sun has no effect, near the cosmic ocean.

Whereas cosmology deals with the spiritual side of the universe, cosmography concerns itself with the physical aspect and its processes.

Qazwini states that it is essential that humanity exerts itself to investigate the wondrous and wisely conceived creation of God, reflect on it in astonishment, and understand it as much as possible.

In his explanation of created things in the powerful and vast universe (51:47), he describes the orbit of the sun based on statements of scientists but also quotes a tradition in which the angel Gabriel tells Muhammad that the sun moves forward 500 years or farsakhs (a farsakh is c. 6 km) from the time Muhammad says "No" until the time he says "Yes" one after another.

[17] Bican's rendering was later included by Giovanni Battista Donado in his Della Letteratura de Turchi, Venice (1688), in a shortlist of Turkish works he felt merited translation into Italian.