maase

The Greenlanders call it Vagavarsuk. It is a very bold bird, and only inhabits the high northern latitudes, in Finmark, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Spitzbergen. This Maase, or sea-gull, is probably the white Muxis of the text. Forst. Voyage from Rostoe to Drontheim, and journey thence into Sweden.

Robert Kerr - A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 01 : Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time

The Norwegians call this species of sea fowl Maase; which is probably the Larus Candidus; a new species, named in the voyage of Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, Larus eburneus, from being perfectly white. By John Muller, plate xii. it is named Lams albus; and seems to be the same called Raths kerr, in Martens Spitzbergen, and Wald Maase, in Leoms Lapland.

Robert Kerr - A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 01 : Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time

Reference is found there to a mystic doctrine of creation known as "Maase Bereshit" and a doctrine of the divine chariot called "Maase Merkaba." The exact nature of these teachings is not known since the Talmud itself prohibits the imparting of this mystic lore to any but the initiated, i. e., to those showing themselves worthy; and never to more than one or two at a time.

Isaac Husik - A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy