"...It is said that animals are found, smaller than a camel in size, but broader than a bull. Their heads are like those of camels and their tails are those of bulls. In the centre of their heads, they have a thick round horn. This horn grows thinner and thinner until it becomes like the point of a lance. Some of them are between three and five cubits in length, some more, some less. This creature grazes on the leaves of certain trees that are very green...If the beast catches him [a man on horseback], it lifts him from the back of the horse with its horn, tosses him in the air, and then catches him on its horn and continues to do this until it has killed him. But under no circumstances does it harm the horse..."
-Ibn Fadlan, The Book of Ahmad Ibn Fadlan
(@apenitentialprayer I think you might find this interesting, given your study of Arabic texts).
In Ibn Fadlan's travel narrative, there's very explicit reference to the Karkadann. In the text, he says that the locals call it a "rhinoceros", but it doesn't indicate that this is the name Ibn himself would have called this creature. The description doesn't exactly match a rhinoceros, either.
