"Papa, Papa!  I just heard a story about a bird that you can use for your book," cried a screeching eight-year-old voice as he shortened the distance between he and his father.

"Tell me my son what is this story?"  Aelian mildly condescended as he turned from his work to face his firstborn.

"Oh father, this bird it is immortal and he is a tool of the priests in Athens or Egypt or something, and its called Phoenix."  The boy spoke eagerly, for it was rare he got the full attention of his father.  "And when they bid him come, he leaves his home in the middle of the sun to burry himself in ashes at a really important temple.  Then when the priests declare it time, he springs out of the ashes even more beautiful than he was before, and he returns to the sun."

"Ah, my son," answered Aelian, "I have heard this story myself, but it is not the truth…not entirely."

In a confused, somewhat disappointed tone, the boy replied, "What is the truth, Papa?"

"Here is the truth," he said, unnecessarily, as he began, "There is a bird of Egypt called the Phoenix.  He is the pupil of all-wise Nature and has a great understanding of numbers.  The purpose of this knowledge is to allow him to determine when five hundred years have passed.  He does this without the aid of fingers or arithmetic.  But he is not immortal.  The purpose of his coming is not to serve the priests in Athens or Egypt, but to be reborn.  In fact most, if not all of the priests argue and fight about when exactly the five hundred years is up.

"While the squabbling continues, spanning over the millennia, always right on time, the Phoenix returns.  'And the priests are obliged to give way and confess that they devote their time "to putting the sun to rest with their talk" [cp. Call. ep. 2 = AP. 7. 80]; but that they do not know as much as birds.'

"My son, this you shall say when someone challenges you with the question, “What is wisdom, son of Aelian?”  Some think it wise to know where Egypt is, but where is Heliopolis from which the bird must come, and to where it must return to bury its father?  Is this not greater than the wisdom of the markets, or of armaments, or of any other kind of wisdom used to undo each other, you mischievous dwarves and malignant shape-shifting demons?  And you shall prove to be wiser than all, if you do not claim to know what you do not know."