Feng Huang in a Safavid Era Carpet

Here we have a late 16th century Southwest Asian Rug usually attributed to Persia. Scholars usually claim it has a Simurgh or Phoenix and they point to it as transplanted Chinese art. I believe that is an over simplistic error in judgement and I will explore some of the reasons why.

The key to this is the Feng Huang;

This long tailed bird is the classical Liao Khitan configuration of a Feng Huang. Compare the features of the Feng Huang with those of  this detail from the Zhang Shiqing's Tomb, East Wall in East Chamber (Liao Dynasty) 1093 - 1117, Xuanhua Xian, China..

Also compare this to 

Please note the neck in each of the 3 images. The same neck even though it is separated by thousands of miles and over 500 years. 

Western scholars desperately want to turn this distinctive bird into a Simurgh or Senmurv. 

As we can see in a classical Sasanian Simurgh they re very different creatures. The Persian Simurgh looks more like a winged or flying squirrel While the Liao Feng Huang is like a cross between a Herron and a Bird of Paradise.