Answer:
The description of the beast is found primarily in Revelation chapters thirteen and seventeen. Chapter thirteen gives the fullest description. John saw it "rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." (Revelation 13:1) It was like a leopard, with feet like the feet of a bear, and had a mouth like a lion. One of its heads had a mortal wound which healed itself, causing people to wonder at it and follow it. (Revelation 13:1-10) This description draws many parallels with a vision in the Book of Daniel where four beasts symbolizing a succession of kingdoms come out of the sea in the forms of a lion, bear, leopard and a beast with ten horns.[2] In Revelation chapter seventeen we learn of a third beast, scarlet in color[3] and some of the symbols are explained. The prevailing view is that the scarlet beast is another, distinct, visualisation of the same subject as the beast of the sea, which is pictured with crowns on its horns, unlike the scarlet beast. The scarlet beast is shown being ridden by a harlot who "reigns over the kings of the earth", (Revelation 17:18) whereas the beast of the sea is not described as being ridden, and is given "power and great authority." The seven heads represent both seven mountains and seven kings, and the ten horns are ten kings who have not yet received kingdoms. Of the seven kings, five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. The beast itself is an eighth king who is of the seven and was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition."[4]
