The elephant

Even though we don't know if the Romanesque artists had ever seen an elephant, this animal is one of the most represented of the time.  As an exotic beast, in the same way as the camel, it was also an object of gifts among the royalty and was represented in ways which were sometimes even funny.  For example, the trunk of the elephant of the Toses Baldachin seemed more like a trumpet.
It symbolises purity and baptism, by being associated to the characteristics of its sexual life that medieval bestiary had made known.
Due to its strength and stamina it participated in the war machinery of the ancient armies.  For this reason in the paintings of Sorpe, as well as the Toses Baldachin, it appears bearing a tower on its back.  This image also symbolises the strength and purity that the Church needed to resist the temptations of the devil.
In Sorpe, part of a representation has also been conserved of a zodiac: a crab and a sagittary or centaur, and a pretty dove that symbolises the Holy Spirit.