630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. As a deity Ībzu ( apsû) is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish, taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c. His wife Damgalnuna, his mother Nammu, his advisor Isimud and a variety of subservient creatures, such as the gatekeeper Lahmu, also lived in the abzu. The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have lived in the abzu since before human beings were created. Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to Judaism's mikvot, the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches. Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu ( apsû). In the city of Eridu, Enki's temple was known as E 2-abzu (house of the deep waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp, an abzu. An often used synonym in cuneiform for Zuab is Abba, meaning Father. Zuab is an embryonic vision based on pragmatic agricultural metaphors. The Cuneiform sign for river is 'a.engur', water that flows from the zuab/engur. Thus, Abzu, actually Zuab, means 'All-knowing Father' and is also the pictogram ‘Engur’, a square basin with a star in the middle as a symbol of divinity. The pictogram for ‘ab’ is a house, or a thatched hut, meaning father, house-father.
The pictogram for 'zu' is a full measuring cup and means knowledge, scholar, wisdom. In Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, it is referred to as the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld ( Kur) and the earth ( Ma) above.
Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the abzu. The Abzu or Apsu ( Sumerian: ??, romanized: abzu Akkadian: ??, romanized: apsû), also called engur ( Cuneiform: ?, LAGAB×HAL Sumerian: engur Akkadian: engurru-lit., ab='water' zu='deep', recorded in Greek as Ἀπασών Apasṓn ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology.