Mi'raj (معراج), also known as al-mi'raj,note horn rabbit, needle rabbit, and bunnicorn, is a creature that resembles a rabbit with a horn on their head. The default mythological depiction is a yellow hare with a single, foot-long, black, and twisted horn comparable in silhouette to that of a unicorn, while the modern fantasy look favors an all-white rabbit with a smaller horn that is white or a similar unobtrusive color. "miʿrāj" means "ladder" in Arabic, but has religious connotations that favor "ascension" as translation. It is unknown why the mi'raj has this name.
As far as surviving documentation goes, the mi'raj has its origin in a myth regarding Alexander the Great, as written down in Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat. Once, he visited Jazirat al-Tinnin, an island in the Indian Ocean, and was asked by the population to kill the tinnin that was terrorizing them. He did and among his rewards from the grateful people was a mi'raj, a horned hare. The intent of the reward is unclear because the creature terrifies other animals away on sight. This is a trait shared with the karkadann, a one-horned creature described in both older and more works. As such, the mi'raj is theorized to be mythologically derived from the karkadann. Its inspiration is sometimes attributed to rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus, which typically prompts the growth of keratinous carcinomas on the infected individual's head; however, the Shope virus is endemic to American cottontail rabbits and almost completely unknown outside of the US Midwest, where it remains primarily a disease of local cottontails and doesn't spread well among either domestic rabbits or hares, making it very unlikely to have had a presence among Middle Eastern hares and rabbits in the middle ages.
Today's popularity of the mi'raj kickstarted with the 1950 karkadann-centric paper Studies in Muslim Iconography I. The Unicorn, which covers the mi'raj in "Other unicorns in Muslim literature". In 1981, Dungeons & Dragons picked up the al-mi'raj in the first edition of the Fiend Folio. And from there, the al-mi'raj made it into the Eastern RPG space with its inclusion in Dragon Quest III in 1988. Dungeons and Dragons's take on the mi'raj largely follows the mythological details. It's a yellow hare with a single black horn and a temper, but it's also no more than a starter enemy. In Dragon Quest, the two primary variants of the mi'raj are grey and purple with a golden horn, more bunny than hare, and lack an intimidation factor.
The result of these two popular renditions is a creature that is principally treated as being as dangerous as a Cute Slime Mook. The mi'raj's horn is a fearsome weapon, but the mi'raj itself is a poor wielder better suited for detecting hostility and running away timely. Yet just as easily the mi'raj's expected weakness is inverted and the creature lives up to the myth. This often goes hand-in-hand with the vorpal bunny archetype and may or may not come as a surprise to whomever encounters a mi'raj.
See also unicorn, a horse with one horn, and the jackalope, a rabbit with antlers.
Examples:
- The intro of the Interspecies Reviewers anime has a cameo of a non-sapient al-mi'raj hopping along next to a waterfall.
- The Keeper Wants to Build a Zoo in Another World, so He Tames Monsters: In Chapter 5, Ikuhara discovers, befriends, and learns to command a full colony of fluffy al-mi'rajs. He realized that the horns of the critters are hollow and that they don't use them for attack, but rather that they have them as a means to communicate. The horn is both an instrument and an antenna and by making the right sounds Ikuhara can make them perform complex maneuvers. The al-mi'rajs are also friendly, so Ikuhara doesn't have to win their trust first either.
- Saikyou no Shokugyou wa Yuusha demo Kenja demo naku Kanteishi (Kari) rashii desu yo?: In Chapters 2-3, Hibiki and Emalia discover a Crystal Horn Rabbit, which is an al-mi'raj variant with a crystal as its horn. The horn is valuable, so Emalia wants to catch the creature. Despite her best efforts at stealth, it spots her and uses escape to teleport 500 m away. Hibiki comes up with a risky but ultimately rewarding strategy that forces the Crystal Horn Rabbit into attacking him, at which point it can't use escape and Emalia can shoot it mid-attack.
- In the Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse manga titled Shin Megami Tensei IV -Prayers-, Jonathan has a partner demon named Al-mi'raj who can change into its larger self when battling.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: There are two mi'raj cards.
- Al-Lumi'raj, part of the "Breakers of Shadow" booster pack, owes its name to a portmanteau of "al-mi'raj" and "lumen". It's a constellation spirit in the form of an al-mi'raj with the addition of four long barbels and pronounced fangs. It's of the wind attribute and jointly Wyrm / Tuner / Effect as far as type goes.
- Salamangreat Almiraj, part of the "Battles of Legend: Hero's Revenge" booster pack, is a robot al-mi'raj. It's of the fire attribute and jointly Cyberse / Link / Effect as far as type goes.
- Magic: The Gathering has the Regal Bunnicorn
creature, which is native to Eldraine, a plane themed around fairy tales.
- Gap Year Adventures: Two adventurers crossing the Klatchian desert have to fight off a whole pack of them by night.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: In the Cyan Desert Car, Chloe encounters a priest named "Miraj", which is a sandy-colored rabbit with a silver unicorn horn.
- Impossible Creatures (2023): Al-mirajes are hares with golden, unicorn-like horns who can make grass sprout wherever they walk. They're usually timid, but they're said to seek out good people and guide them.
- Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: White and yellow Needle Rabbits roam around on the 7th floor. They're rabbits with a horn on their heads and for the most part not dangerous, but if they launch themselves towards an enemy with their horn and hit, the damage is severe if not lethal. A Needle Rabbit's horn is therefore considered quality weapon material. Bell and Lilly encounter these creatures in Volume 2 and in Volume 5 they get to deal with the related Al-Mirajs on the 13th and 14th floors. Al-Mirajs are like Needle Rabbits, but they walk on their hind legs, are on the smaller side of human-sized, and know how to handle weapons and combat strategy. Relative to the floor, Al-Mirajs are not more dangerous than Needle Rabbits unless they come in groups. Any Al-Miraj more to deal with than a group of adventurers has members poses a considerable risk.
- Subverted in I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. The race called "almiraj," while evoking the subject of this trope, are merely rabbit-based beastmen. They have no horns, and Koko, the only recurring almiraj, is solely the universe's equivalent of a street musician.
- Re:Monster: The prey of Rou's first hunt on Day 4 is a Horn Rabbit, a brown rabbit with a 20 cm long horn on its head. He share the meat with Kichi, but keeps the horn to himself as a sharp and durable stabbing weapon. It proves useful the next day against bigger Horn Rabbits, of which he also confiscates the horns. On Day 92, the higher ranked Blade Rabbits are encountered, which rather than a horn has a blade on its head. It also has a collar of blades. Relative to the other monsters near the Kuuderun Great Forest, they remain easy prey. On Day 153, the final rank known as Vorpal Bunnies are encountered. These red-furred critters have the same blades as Blade Rabbits and also a blade on their tail. Because they can move in absolute silence and attack with both sides of their body, they are much more troublesome than the previous ranks, but still not too dangerous for what else dwells in the Jadar Mountains.
- Re:Zero: One of the Three Great Demon Beasts created by Daphne is the Great Rabbit. The Great Rabbit is a massive Hive Mind mi'raj colony that is carnivorous and insatiable. Daphne had created it to solve hunger because the Great Rabbit can instantly regrow its numbers, thus being a perpetual source of food, but Daphne also gave it her own endless hunger. One-on-one, the separate mi'raj have the benefit of being deceptively cute and in the possession of sharp teeth, but it's the sheer amount of bodies of the Demon Beast that is the true danger. At one point, it was estimated that there were 80.000 separate bodies. The Great Rabbit is effectively indestructible because its death would require every single body to be killed, so Beatrice uses the Al Shamak to lock it in another dimension.
- Star Trek: Picard features "bunnicorns" as a native species on the planet Nepenthe, where they are hunted for their meat. Their venom sacs had to be removed before consumption, however, to avoid the vomiting of black bile and death that came with exposure to their venom.
- Dungeons & Dragons: The almiraj (occasionally also spelled al-mi'raj) has been a feature of the game since the first edition of the Fiend Folio in 1981. Their characterization tends to vary; their original appearance had them as territorial beings whose small size belies their fearlessness, while later write-ups such as Fifth Edition's Tomb of Annihilation have them as much more timid beings more prone to running away from danger. They often live in lands inspired by Arabia or Persia, such as Zakhara in Forgotten Realms.
- Pathfinder: Almirajes have stats for both editions of the game. Unlike regular, hornless rabbits, they're carnivores and very aggressive, and use their horns to gore prey and enemies. Anything killed by an almiraj's horn is immediately turned to stone. As a result, they need to eat their prey while it's helpless but still alive.
- Fluffy horned rabbits are a recurring enemy type in the Atelier Series, with their fur and horns being used for Item Crafting.
- Brave Frontier: Al-mi'raj is a monstrous if elegant rabbit with a horn on its head. It evolves into cait sith and is of the light element. The creature is found in the Lamellia Temple and known to be excessively territorial and dangerous on account of its powerful hind legs and sturdy horn. On the other hand, it isn't rare to find an al-mi'raj with their horn stuck in something a feet or more above the ground. In that case, its spine-chilling screeching when it's in a vulnerable position like that is enough to chase off most dangers.
- Dragon Quest: The purple spiked hare (also known as al-mi'raj), white bunicorn, golden 24-carrot bunicorn, and black bunicorn queen are horned rabbits. None of them pose a genuine threat.
- Gems of War: Bunnicorns are rabbits with an elegantly carved horn on their head. They're classified both as Wildfolk and Beast and found in the forest-rich Pan's Vale and rabbit domain of The Warrens. They're fast and have access to the spell Cute Impalement, which charms their target after they've stabbed them with their horn.
- Shadow Verse: There are both al-mi'rajs and bunnicorns, though the latter is not a rabbit in the original Japanese.
- Al-mi'rajs are a Havencraft species of which all members look like humans with rabbit ears and a horn on their foreheads. The looks of the ears and the horn differ per individual, and many express an affinity with the moon. There's Bashful Al-mi'raj, Moon Al-mi'raj, Ramina - Moon Al-mi'raj, Lethal Al-mi'raj, Charitable Al-mi'raj, Justine - Holy Al-mi'raj, Sword Al-mi'raj, Malevolent Al-mi'raj, Luxhorn Sarissa, and Sarissa -Luxflash Spear. Dropped from Rage of Bahamut are Al-mi'raj On Holiday, Curious Al-Mi'raj, and Summertime Moon Al-mi'raj.
- Bunnicorn is the English identification for a creature that's only identified as a beast in Japanese. It looks like a cross between a rabbit and a dog, something which becomes more pronounced in its evolved form on the Mysterian Summoner Vayle card. It has a horn and its evolved form has wings to boot. It and Vayle are part of the Runecraft class.
- In Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, the primary religious order of Drostardy has for main symbol... a "bunny unicorn", as seen once on the mitre of a priest. The comic being based on D&D, the almiraj probably do exist in this world.
- "Red" (2010): Rather than the wolf, it's a mi'raj that poses a danger to Little Red. The cute white-haired fluffball approaches her and when she pets it, it becomes the size of a bear with a maw to match. The wolf comes to Little Red's aid and only together are they able to kill it.
