The cinnamologus is a bird that lives in Arabia. It builds its nest using the fruit of the cinnamon tree, which men value greatly. The men who want to get the cinnamon cannot climb the tree to reach the nest, because the nest is too high and the tree branches are too delicate, so they throw lead balls to knock down the cinnamon nest. Cinnamon obtained from the nest of this bird is the most valuable of all.

The cinnamologus is most commonly illustrated as a bird in a nest at the top of a tree, with a man below about to throw a lead ball or a stone with a sling. Sometimes the man is shooting an arrow from a bow. The cinnamologus illustration can be very elaborate.