Representing (probably) the sun rising behind a hill. The inner curve represents the hill, while the outer curve represents the rays of the sun. Old Kingdom examples show a semicircular form with four colorful bands of blues, reds, and greens surmounted by a halo of rays,
; Betrò suggests it may thus represent a rainbow rather than a hill. Allen suggests that it represents the sun rising above the primeval mound, the first earth to arise from the primordial waters at the time of creation. The semi-cursive style of writing this hieroglyph, which showed the sun’s rays as a series of projections instead of an unbroken arc,
, was sometimes carried over into ordinary hieroglyphic writing. Another form shows the arc unbroken but rays still visible,
. The phonogrammatic value of ḫꜥ is derived by the rebus principle from its use as a logogram for ḫꜥ.
Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 489
Henry George Fischer (1988) Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 36
Betrò, Maria Carmela (1995) Geroglifici: 580 Segni per Capire l'Antico Egitto, Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., →ISBN
James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 131.
