Kitāb naʿt al-ḥayawān, sometimes abbreviated Na't (“Book of the Characteristics of Animals”), is a 13th-century manuscript in the tradition of the Nestorian Christian author Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ (980–1058).

[1] It is a work of the Abbasid period circa 1225, probably from Baghdad, but the exact date or place of production, or the author (painter and calligrapher) of this specific manuscript are unknown.

[1] The compiler of the book describes his intentions: The compiler ( jāmiʿ) of this book says: when I read what the sage Aristotle said in his book on the characteristics of animals and found that he had not mentioned their usefulness I wanted to [add what has been mentioned by the sage ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrāʾīl i]bn Bakhtīshūʿ on the usefulness of animals to make this book complete.

The attendants of the "Ruler-Prince" are armed and dressed with elements of the Turkic military fashion, wearing a type of Turkic sharbush headgear and boots.

[3] One attendant in frontispiece 4 is in non-military “Arab” dress, with a turban, a long tunic with baggy white trousers and black slippers.