Image of a Ba-bird on a Headboard from a Coffin

The ba was the manifestation of the individual person, his physical and psychic alter ego. It was not separately perceptible, however, until death. Uniting with the mummy in the tomb and also leaving the body and tomb to move about freely in the realm of light, the ba represented a man's ability to move about, especially after death. The most common representation of the ba is that of a bird with a human head.

The depiction of the ba inside the coffin became a regular feature of coffin decoration in the Third Intermediate Period. The hieroglyphs alongside the head of this representation of a ba are writings of the Egyptian word pery, meaning "come forth," the first word in the Egyptian name for the Book of the Dead.