Where did the simile 'as wise as an owl ' originate?

It is believed that in the first instance, Archaeopteryx was the first bird, some 150 million years ago. Along the way, owls evolved as their own species, being found to live some 60 million years ago, if not sooner. Owls were more successful than other birds, filling every role of birds as we know them today, until birds became more successful and the owls started dying out, leaving just two main families, the Strigidae ( all owls except Barn owls and Grass owls ) and the then more common Tytonidae ( Barn owls and Grass owls).

Gradually, the typical owls ( Strigidae ) over took the Tytonidae, the Strigidae became the more common family, some 200 different species, the Tytonidae have around 17 different species.