Aka Manah

The concept of akem manah is already attested in the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and believed to have been composed by Zoroaster himself.

In the third instance where the term appears, Akem Manah is a property of the daevas, entities that in later Zoroastrianism are demons but in the Gathas are gods that are to be rejected.

In the Younger Avesta, Akem Manah is unambiguously a demonic entity, an auxiliary of Angra Mainyu.

In Vendidad 19's account of the temptation of Zoroaster, Aka Manah poses ninety-nine questions to weaken the prophet's conviction in Ahura Mazda.

In the Zoroastrian texts of the 9th-12th centuries, Akoman (Middle Persian for Akem Manah) is the second of Ahriman's (MP for Angra Mainyu) creatures (Bundahishn 1.24), devised to counter Ohrmuzd's (Ahura Mazda's) creation of the world.

Also reflecting the hierarchy that mirrors the Amesha Spentas and in which each of the "bounteous immortals" has collaborators (hamkars), Akoman has a special relationship with Anashtih "non-peace".

Denkard 8 attributes the crying of new-born infants to Akoman, reasoning that the demon frightens the children with ghastly images of the final renovation of the world.

According to Denkard 9.30.8 (reflecting chapter 7.8 of the Warsht-mansr Nask, a lost Avestan text), Akoman causes a mortal's failure to discriminate between good and evil.

[3] In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Akvan is described as having long hair, blue eyes and a head like an elephant with a mouthful of tusks instead of teeth.