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It is Leviathan, the whale. Genesis says all living creatures were
created before Man, and that Man named them all in turn, after which they withdrew
to their several habitiats. Since the whale lives in the ocean, it knew
Adam no more, and by travelling from pole to pole, it labours night and
day.
Whales, possess neither "hands nor feet", but flippers and tail, and as
mere animals in the Theological sense, they have no soul and no sense of right
and wrong. Since they are at the top of their food chain, they do not
customarily fear death, and they only "appear on earth" when they are
beached accidentally.
When God put Jonah in the belly of the Leviathan, then rescued him, he
placed a living soul in a whale, then took it out again.
In the 19th Century, when Biblical conundra like this were most popular,
whale oil was the preferred source of lamp-light, as it burned cleanly and
with little odour. And of course, a hunted whale might well run for miles
in fear.
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