With the cultus of the Bennu at Heliopolis is connected the story of the phœnix.
He also "taketh the character of the god Bennu, with the head of a crane," and as Sokar Osiris has the head of a hawk.
The inscriptions say of the great Bennu that "it was self-begotten," that "it caused the divisions of time to arise."
Another bird held in great reverence was the Bennu, a bird of the heron species which gave rise to the mythical bird, the phnix.