Most likely, it proceeds from bible tradition. A lion — Jesus Christ's symbol as Tsar Iudeysky, director of fair trial. In Saint John the Evangelist's "Revelation" it is directly called "a lion from Iudin's knee". In Christianity the lion symbolizes throne and force.
"Judas's lion"
The lion served as an emblem of all knee of Iudin which predominated in bible Israel. From this tribe there were bible tsars. Christ Redeemer's family tree was brought out of it."Judas's lion" flaunted on the coat of arms of the imperial dynasty governing in Christian Ethiopia till 1974. The dynasty, on a legend, occurred from the bible tsar Solomon and the queen Savskaya. The last Ethiopian emperor Hayle Selassiye was considered as their descendant in the 225th knee. Lions are mentioned in the Bible 58 times. In former times these terrible animals were everywhere widespread in the Middle East. In general, at the beginning of the Middle Ages the area of their distribution was very wide. Lions lived almost throughout Africa, except for deserts and tropical forests. They lived in the south of Europe, in Western Asia, Persia and India. Today lions in the wild nature remained only in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Yes their small colony by miracle remained in the Girsky forest in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Subspecies of lions
The fear and horror on inhabitants as it is supposed, were directed Asian, by them Persian or Indian, lions. Those that remained in Gujarat. They are not the biggest representatives of a look. Adult males weigh 160-190 kilograms. They grow to 110 centimeters in withers and to 292 centimeters in length including a tail. The Berber lion is considered the largest. On historical sources, separate copies reached 3.25 meters in length and 275-300 kilograms weighed. This lion had really regal appearance. Berber lions lived on extensive spaces of North Africa from Morocco to Egypt earlier. Unfortunately, they, because of excessive hunting, disappeared in the nature. Last wild "berberets" was killed in Atlassky mountains in 1942. Perhaps, descendants of Berber lions remained in zoos and circuses. But genetic researches, the conducted last three decades, do not confirm it. Though it is known, at the end of the 19th century the London zoo contained a Berber lion by nickname Sultan. Quickly, after contact with Europeans, the cape lion disappeared. On the verge of disappearance nowadays Senegalese subspecies of a lion living in the Western Africa. One more subspecies of a lion from Northeast Congo are extremely rare. The Masai lion living in East Africa is rather not bad widespread and well protected. The South West African or katangsky lion is widespread in Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Congo. Kruger in the Republic of South Africa lives in national park population of transvalsky lions.