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Just as Tiamat, symbolised by the winged, 4-legged dragons encaging the twin-headed serpent, guards the tree of life, so are there guardians over the tree of knowledge. While the tree of life was symbolised by the twin-headed serpent, the tree of knowledge is a complex geometrical arrangement of 13 blossoms on a vine-lattice around a central blooming trunk. While the guardians of the 15 flamed arched doorway were the fish-robed men symbolising winter, the guardians of the 13 blossoming tree of knowledge are garbed as birds, with the head of the phoneix and two wings. They water the tree of knolwedge and pick the blossoms from it, and, just as the dragons ensnaring the double-headed snake of the tree of life, these anthropomorphised avians also represent Tiamat.