A simplified depiction (Ѻ) of Maat, the embodiment of the Egyptian religion principle of universal moral order and justice, shown with her scale, "feather of truth", and someone’s heart, filled with sins, being weighted in the afterlife. Maat is either thought to be the daughter of Ra, or was the principle that brought the world into existence. She is also the wife of Thoth.

“But in the ethical and or philosophical sense Maat means much more than to do what is right. Maat means also the just order established by god in nature and society through the act of creation. It is the dynamic order that is behind all creation, an order man must strive to preserve by conducting himself properly toward god, his fellow men, and all things, even animals. For the Egyptian all life was of a single piece governed by the same moral law. This idea is close to the medieval notion of a natural moral order that is the material expression of the divine order in which human law and human action are participants in and reflections of the larger order of the universe. In the Egyptian view, however, unlike the later Aristotelian concept, this cosmic order does not govern itself nor is it governed by some unmoved mover. When men do evil, they bring disorder to the natural order of things. Accordingly, it is man's responsibility to preserve and restore the natural order by doing what is right, that is, Maat.”