Tigers are remarkable for their strength and speed. They are named tiger for their speed, because in the language of the Medes and Persians the word for arrow is tigris. The Tigris River also has this name because it is the swiftest of rivers. Tigers, which are spotted, live mostly in Hyrcania.

When a man steals the cub of a tiger, the tiger swiftly chases him, and would catch him except for a trick. When the tiger comes near and the robber sees he cannot escape, he throws down a glass sphere (or a mirror); the tiger, seeing its own reflection in the sphere and thinking it is her stolen cub, stops to nurse the supposed cub. This gives the robber time to escape.