Comprehensive Chapter on Animals that are not Edible

4. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from ‘Amr ibn ‘ Uthman from al-Husayn ibn Khalid who has said the following: “I once asked abu al-Hassan, Musa ibn Ja‘far عليه السلام, about the flesh of elephants. He (the Imam) said, ‘No, it is not lawful for food.’ I then asked, ‘Why is it so?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘It has deformities and Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, has made what is metamorphosed unlawful for food as well as the flesh of what is deformed in its shape.”’