No strong evidence survives that an image of a dragon or snake with wings occurred in any coat-of-arms of Kazan city or of the Kazan khanate before the Russian invasion of 1552. (Islam - the official faith of the khanate - prohibited making images of animals.) Modern Tatar villages do not have any such thing as coats of arms nor symbols of towns. (Note however that all raions of Russia adopted coats of arms recently (ca. 2004) and that the Russian Empire's uyezd centers had coats of arms before 1917). "Zilant" is proper name in the Russian language and the role of Zilant as a symbol of Kazan functions mostly as an element of Russian culture nowadays. Snakes with wings appear in legends in Tartar culture, and a dragon - ajdaha - plays a role in fairy tales.