Ba (bꜣ)

Personality — bird of the soul

Ba — the personality, the unique character of the individual, depicted as a human-headed bird (the iconography emphasises that the ba retains the face of the deceased). The ba can leave the body and travel — at night to the realm of the dead, by day back to the tomb to receive offerings. Its survival presupposes both an intact khat to return to and a functioning ka to nourish.