Akbuzat, the 'white-dun steed', is the celestial winged horse of Bashkir epic, a tulpar born of the herds of heaven. It belongs to the sky-maiden Humay, who bestows it only on a hero proven worthy; in the Ural-batyr cycle it becomes Ural's mount, swifter than wind and able to cross both sky and water. The horse is important enough to head its own epic, Akbuzat, in which it passes to the hero Hauban. More than a beast, it counsels and rescues its rider, and stands in Bashkir tradition as the ideal of the heroic war-horse.