The ibis stays near the edge of the water, looking for dead fish or other carrion to eat. It cannot get to the clean fish in deep water because it does not know how to swim, and makes no effort to learn. It is the dirtiest of birds because it feeds on corpses. Snakes flee from the ibis, which also feeds its chicks on snake eggs. The ibis lives near the Nile and purges itself with its beak.

Manuscript writers sometimes confused the ibis with the ibex, a type of goat. >/p>

The ibis represents the unrepentant sinner who only seeks the fruit of the flesh, rather than entering the water of baptism and feeding on the fruits of the spirit to be found there.