Off the western coast of the Yucatán Peninsula lies the archaeological site of Jaina, a small artificial island constructed from sascab, a limestone material known as “white earth,” and occupied by Maya populations from the Late Classic through the Early Postclassic periods (600-1100 CE). The ceramics recovered from this site display remarkable diversity, both in the characters represented and in scenes related to social life and the Maya symbolic universe, as exemplified by figurines depicting elderly figures emerging from a flower. These images have been interpreted as possible representations of primordial beings involved in the creation of the world.
Several floral species can be identified on these ceramics, including members of the Araceae family, as well as the water lily (Nymphaea ampla Salisb.) and tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.), providing symbolic references that may be illuminated by contemporary Lacandon oral tradition. The fragment of one myth recounts:
K'akoch is a god. He created the earth. He created tuberose flowers so that he might have worshippers. No one knows how he made them. He created them and transformed them into tuberose flowers. He created them suddenly. First he created Sukunkyum, the Elder Brother of Our Father, then he created Ah Kyantho', and afterward Hach Ak Yum, Our True Father. It is said that once the flower opened, they were born. They had no mother. They were born from one of the tuberose flowers; it was their mother. There were many flowers. They opened, and from one of them they emerged. The three brothers saw nothing but the tuberose flower... After emerging from the tuberose flower, the gods grew.
In this narrative, Hach Ak Yum is responsible for creating the world inhabited by human beings. This universe is divided into seven cosmic levels: five belong to the celestial realm, where divine beings such as Itsana, K'in, and Ah K'in Chob reside, the latter identified as a maize deity and related by kinship to the creator. The earthly plane is occupied by the Lacandon, the hach winik, who coexist with other deities such as Mensabäk, Itza Noh K'uh, and Känän K'ax, beings who dwell in caves and who, like the primordial gods, originated from flowers. The lowest level corresponds to the underworld, the domain of the being known as Kisin.
Moreover, among the aquatic attributes of God N is the substitution of his net by a water-lily leaf nibbled by a fish, thereby linking the deity to the Water Lily Serpent and to primordial processes.