Ak Ana

In the cosmogony reported in the available sources, an endless expanse of Water preceded the formation of Earth; Ak Ana is the sacred female presence of that primordial Water. The summary account states that Water had been created earlier than Earth and that Ak Ana was therefore regarded as the elder sister of Earth. In one cited narrative, the sky-creator Kayra (Kaira) Khan — sometimes represented as a pure white goose — flies over the endless Water until Ak Ana appears to urge him to create; from the bottom of the Water a 'sacred duck' named Lura lifts sand, clay and silt from which the Earth is formed. The same source also reports that Ak Ana is described as both consort and daughter of Kayra Han in those traditions.

The provided sources do not give a detailed anthropomorphic description. Rather, Ak Ana is presented by epithet and role: called Ak Ana / Ağ Ana / Ak Ene and translated as the 'Holy Mother' and the goddess of the water. Emphasis in the material is on her status as the primordial mother associated with Water and as elder sister of Earth rather than on clothing, color, or other physical attributes.

Source texts attribute to Ak Ana foundational creative agency and proprietorship over life and fertility: she is said to have urged Kayra/Kaira Khan toward creation and to determine 'the life, fertility and productivity of land.' Water — Ak Ana's domain — is described as the initial state of existence, 'the possessor of spirits and the entrance into the other realm,' and as giving rise 'evenly [to] both foreign and hostile elements.' These phrases in the source portray her as a primordial, liminal power connecting material creation and the spirit realm and as responsible for fertility of the earth.