Apoc. Ab. 23:4-11 - “And I looked at the picture, and my eyes ran to the side of the garden of Eden. And I saw there a man very great in height and terrible in breadth, incomparable in aspect, entwined (c1,nneTmac51) with a woman who was also equal to the man in aspect and size. And they were standing under a tree of Eden, and the fruit of the tree was like the appearance of a bunch of grapes of the vine. And behind the tree was standing, as it were, a serpent in form, but having hands and feet like a man, and wings on its shoulders: six on the right side and six on the left. And he was holding in his hands the grapes of the tree and feeding the two…”

“Aristotle briefly states, as a matter of common report, that there were in his time winged serpents in Ethiopia"

WTH?!? (SRC = https://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/mm/mm09.htm & Herodotus, Book ii., chap. V)

• Herodotus speaks without the slightest doubt upon the subject in the following passages. "Arabia * is the last of inhabited lands towards the south, and it is the only country which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and ledanum." "The frankincense they procure by means of the gum styrax, which the Greeks get from the Phœnicians. This they burn, and thereby obtain the spice; for the trees which bear the frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, small in size, and of various colours, whereof vast numbers hang about every tree. They are of the same kind as the serpents that invade Egypt, and there is nothing but the smoke of the styrax which will drive them from the trees."

• Again, Herodotus,  * "the Arabians say that the whole world would swarm with these serpents, if they were not kept in check, in the way in which I know that vipers are." "Now, with respect to the vipers and the winged snakes of Arabia, if they increased as fast as their nature would allow, impossible were it for man to maintain himself upon the earth. Accordingly, it is found that when the male and female come together, at the very moment of impregnation, the female seizes the male by the neck, and having once fastened cannot be brought to leave go till she has bit the neck entirely through, and so the male perishes; but after a while he is avenged upon the female by means of the young, which, while still unborn, gnaw a passage through the womb and then through the belly of their mother. Contrariwise, other snakes, which are harmless, lay eggs and hatch a vast number of young. Vipers are found in all parts of the world, but the winged serpents are nowhere seen except in Arabia, where they are all congregated together; this makes them appear so numerous." - Herodotus had so far interested himself in ascertaining the probability of their existence as to visit Arabia for the purpose of inquiry; he says, * "I went once to a certain place in Arabia, almost exactly opposite the city of Buto, to make inquiries concerning the winged serpents. On my arrival I saw the back-bones and ribs of serpents in such numbers as it is impossible to describe; of the ribs there were a multitude of heaps, some great, some small, some middle-sized. The place where the bones lie is at the entrance of a narrow gorge between steep mountains, which there open upon a spacious plain communicating with the great plains of Egypt. The story goes, that with the spring the snakes come flying from Arabia towards Egypt, but are met in this gorge by the birds called ibises, who forbid their entrance and destroy them all. The Arabians assert, and the Egyptians also admit, that it is on account of the service thus rendered that the Egyptians hold the ibis in so much reverence." He further † describes the winged serpent as being shaped like the water-snake, and states that its wings are not feathered, but resemble very closely those of the bat.

• Cicero, again, speaks of the ibis as being a very large bird, with strong legs, and a horny long beak, which destroys a great number of serpents, and keeps Egypt free from pestilential diseases, by killing and devouring the flying serpents, brought from the deserts of Lybia by the southwest wind, and so preventing the mischief

• Solinus, whose work, Polyhistor, is mainly a compilation from Pliny's Natural History, gives a similar account of the swarms of winged serpents about the Arabian marshes, and states that their bite was so deadly that death followed the bite before pain could be felt - 

• “Josephus * unmistakably affirms his belief in the existence of flying serpents, in his account of the stratagem which Moses adopted in attacking the Ethiopians, who had invaded Egypt and penetrated as far as Memphis. From this we may infer that in his time flying serpents were by no means peculiar to Arabia,” - 

[God] deprived the Serpent of speech, out of indignation at his malicious disposition towards Adam. Besides this, he inserted poison under his tongue, and made him an enemy to men; and suggested to them that they should direct their strokes against his head; that being the place wherein lay his mischievous designs towards men; and it being easiest to take vengeance on him that way. And when he had deprived him of the use of his feet, he made him to go rolling all along, and dragging himself upon the ground."

-- Book I, Chpt. 1 verse 4 

-- Flavius Josephus of the Antiquities of the Jews  

NOTES:

See also Theologia Indorum - #2 "nigh unto an angel of light"

brazen serpent lifted up by Moses in wilderness is type of Christ, Hel. 8:14–15 (Alma 33:19–22)

• Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, Num. 21:8.

• if son asks for fish, will father give him serpent, 3 Ne. 14:10 (Matt. 7:10).

• poisonous serpents could not harm Saints, Morm. 8:24.

• those that believe shall take up serpents, Morm. 9:24.

• poisonous serpents come upon land, Ether 9:31–33.

• poisonous serpents are destroyed, Ether 10:19.

• require not miracles except against poisonous serpents, D&C 24:13.