Early last century, two mares of the Tuwaisah Atiq strain, bred by the Anaza in the Northern region, were brought to Shaikh Hamed bin Isa (1874 – 1942) as a tribute. It was said that the mares were rather insignificant looking and very small in stature – but when mated with the Bahrain stallions, they produced most magnificent offspring. The story is told that when Shaikh Hamed once had prominent visitors from abroad, they had admired some beautiful young foals cavorting outside the guest palace. They had requested to see the dams of these foals. When Shaikh Hamed had the Tuwaisah Atiq mares brought forth, the guests could not believe that such homely mares could produce anything so beautiful – whereupon Shaikh Hamed likened the old mares to the ugly oyster, which when opened will produce a pearl.

The Tuwaisah family today all descend from these two Tuwaisah Atiq mares.