Samrau is the sovereign of the sky in Bashkir myth, a bird-king who rules the heavens and all winged creatures. He is wed to two luminaries at once, the Sun (Koyash) and the Moon (Ay), and by them fathers the two celestial maidens Humay and Ayhylu. Standing wholly outside the mortal world of Yanbirde's household, he embodies the upper, solar-lunar order of the cosmos into which Ural marries. His name preserves the ancient Turkic-Iranian mythic bird, the Simurgh or Samruq, adapted to the Bashkir heaven.