In Ancient Egypt the falcon was the personification of light. Ra, the sun god, was often depicted with the head of a falcon. In this sculpture the circle in which the falcon stands represents the sun.

The base is constructed using the proportions of the golden ratio, 1.618 to 1; this is the dominant proportional ratio responsible for much of the design in nature. The Greek mathematician Pythagoras (circa 580 - 500 BC) is sometimes credited as the first to discover this ratio, though the Egyptians may well have known about it more than a 1000 years earlier. Psychological tests have shown that humans find the rectangle created using the golden ratio preferable to all others; this preference shows a resonance between man and nature. Greek and Renaissance artists understood this principle and golden ratio proportions were widely used in composition and design.