Ay is the Moon personified, the second of the two luminaries wed to the sky-king Samrau. As his lunar consort she is the mother of Ayhylu, the 'moon-beauty', balancing the Sun Koyash and her solar daughter within Samrau's heavenly household. The pairing of Sun and Moon as co-wives of the bird-king expresses the Bashkir vision of the ordered upper world from which the hero takes his celestial bride.