Another is the serpent which occupies so conspicuous a place among the symbols of the gods on the black stones recording benefactions, and which sometimes appears upon the cylinders.
[PLATE XIX., Fig.

3.] This symbol, here as elsewhere, is emblematic of superhuman knowledge--a record of the primeval belief that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.

The stellar name of Hoa was Kimmut; and it is suspected that in this aspect he was identified with the constellation Draco, which is perhaps the Kimah of Scripture.
Besides his chief character of "god of knowledge," Hoa is also "god of life," a capacity in which the serpent would again fitly symbolize him.
He was likewise "god of glory," and "god of giving," being, as Berosus said, the great giver of good gifts to man.
The monuments do not contain much evidence of the early worship of Hoa.
His name appears on a very ancient stone tablet brought from Mugheir (Ur); but otherwise his claim to be accounted one of the primeval gods must rest on the testimony of Berosus and Helladius, who represent him as known to the first settlers.

He seems to have been the tutelary god of Is or Hit, which Isidore of Charax calls Aeipolis, or "Hea's city;" but there is no evidence that this was a very ancient place.

The Assyrian kings built him temples at Asshur and Calah.
Hoa had a wife Dav-Kina, of whom a few words will be said presently.
Their most celebrated son was Merodach or Bel-Merodach, the Belus of Babylonian times.