According to Saint Mechtildis, it is the simplicity of the heart of Jesus; with others it signifies the preachers, the active religious life, as contrasted with the turtle dove, which personifies the contemplative life, since the ring-dove flies and coos in company, whereas the turtle dove rejoices apart and alone.
"To Bruno of Asti the dove is also an image of patience, a figure of the prophets.
"As to the beasts symbolizing Hell and evil, they are almost without number; the whole creation of monsters is to be found there.

Then among real animals we find: the serpent--the aspic of Scripture, the scorpion, the wolf as mentioned by Jesus Himself, the leopard noted by Saint Melito as being allied to Antichrist, the she-tiger representing the sins of arrogance, the hyena, the jackal, the bear, the wild-boar, which, in the Psalms, is said to destroy the vineyard of the Lord, the fox, described as a hypocritical persecutor by Peter of Capua and as a promoter of heresy by Raban Maur.

All beasts of prey; and the hog, the toad--the instrument of witchcraft, the he-goat--the image of Satan himself, the dog, the cat, the ass--under whose form the Devil is seen in trials for witchcraft in the Middle Ages, the leech, on which the anonymous writer of Clairvaux casts contumely; the raven that went forth from the ark and did not return--it represents malice, and the dove which came back is virtue, Saint Ambrose tells us; and the partridge which, according to the same writer, steals and hatches eggs she did not lay.
"If we may believe Saint Theobald, the Devil is also symbolized by the spider, for it dreads the sun as much as the Evil One dreads the Church, and is more apt to weave its net by night than by day, thus imitating Satan, who attacks man when he knows him to be sleeping and powerless to defend himself.
"The Prince of Darkness is also to be seen as the lion and the eagle interpreted in an evil sense.
"This," reflected Durtal, "is the same fact as we find in the expressive symbolism of colours and flowers; constantly a double meaning.

The two antagonistic interpretations are almost invariably met with in the lore of hieroglyphics, excepting only in that of gems.
"Thus it is that the lion, defined by Saint Hildegarde as the image of zeal for God, the lion, figuring the Son Himself, becomes to Hugh of Saint Victor the emblem of cruelty.

Basing their argument on a text in the Psalms, certain writers identify it with Lucifer.