Waqwaq, Waq al-Waq, Wakwak: a talking tree? Island of women? Exotic archipelago? Join me as I attempt to trace this complicated term, synonymous w/ the wondrous & strange in cultures throughout the Middle East & S Asia, through geography, literature, & art! Pic: BL Or.4615 f. 44r 
This is a thread I've long thought about, but the subject is complicated. Even more than some myths, Waq-waq is different in different fields. I first encountered it in Arabic popular literature, & when I started to come across it in paintings, I was fascinated by the differences
In literature, Waq-waq was an island, on which the Waq-waq tree grew woman-like fruits. The details differed, but that was the main theme. In art, the tree always grew heads, but mostly of animals, sometimes together with humans. Image: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin T.4594 f. 26
As it turned out, the artistic representation was related to a literary variation: the Romance of Alexander, which had made its way into the popular and literary canon of the miniaturists creating these paintings for illuminated manuscripts.
I could trace three main variations on the Waq-Waq story: as an exotic archipelago, often ruled by a queen (geographical literature); as an island with a tree growing woman-fruit (popular literature); and as a talking tree (the Alexander Romance). These threads often intersect!
So, geography: Shawkat Toorawa has written a great deal ab geographers trying to trace the location of Waq-Waq: it's been identified as Japan, off the coast of East Africa, or in the Indian Ocean. All many say is that it is ruled by fierce tribes, surrounded by hostile ocean
These are mostly early Arab geographers, like 10th c. al-Mas'udi. But others, later, like 15th c. ibn al-Wardi, mention odd flora and fauna, from bat-like humans and sex-changing rabbits to a curious tree said to grow here...
Ibn al-Wardi describes "trees that bear as fruit women: shapely, with bodies, eyes, hands, feet, hair, breasts, and vulvas like the vulvas of women..." (TSM R. 1488)
Their faces are exceptionally beautiful and they hang by their hair. They come out of cases like big swords, and when they feel the wind and sun, they shout `Waq Waq’ until their hair tears." (trans. Toorawa)
Beyond these trees are those with even more beautiful women, with whom a man may have intercourse before dying and being led to paradise. A detail from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin miniature shared above should suffice to illustrate!
Being a far more interesting/salacious version of the tale of Waq Waq, this version is what captured the imaginations of future authors and artists. In the Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, our hero encounters two trees with human fruit on a quest to find his missing wife...
The first grows male fruit proclaiming the glory of god at sunset, which throws Sayf into a religious fervor. The second grows fruit like beautiful women, who are edible and delicious once Sayf is convinced to have a taste-- one suspects it wasn't just for sustenance!
Alas, I've run out of time before my childcare shift-- apologies for the abrupt finish, but please stay tuned. Next week I'll continue with the version from the Alexander Romance, and how it was interpreted by later Iranian and Indian authors and painters!
