Before Eve, there was Lilith. According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a medieval text composed between 700 and 1000 CE, God didn't create Eve first. God created a woman from the same earth as Adam and named her Lilith.
The trouble started immediately. Adam insisted on being dominant. Lilith refused. "We are equal to each other," she told him, "inasmuch as we were both created from the earth." Neither would yield. So Lilith did something astonishing: she spoke the Ineffable Name of God - the Shem HaMeforash - and flew away into the sky.
Adam complained to God, and God dispatched three angels - Sanoy, Sansanoy, and Semangalof - to bring her back. They found her in the middle of the sea, in the very waters where the Egyptians would one day drown. The angels threatened to kill her if she didn't return. Lilith refused. But she made a deal: she would have power over newborn infants - boys for eight days, girls for twenty - unless she saw the names of those three angels inscribed on an amulet. If she did, she'd leave the child alone.
She also accepted a terrible price for her freedom. One hundred of her demon children would die every single day. This became the origin story behind Jewish birth amulets (kame'ot) inscribed with the names of Sanoy, Sansanoy, and Semangalof - a practice that persisted for centuries across Jewish communities.
The text also tells how Ben Sira cured the king's daughter of chronic sneezing by tricking her into holding her sneezes for three days, training her body to stop entirely. It's a strange pairing of stories - cosmic rebellion alongside folk medicine - but that's the Alphabet of Ben Sira for you. For more on Lilith's later mythological career, she becomes a far more powerful figure in kabbalistic tradition.
ה He said to him, "The angels appointed for healing: Sanoy, Sansanoy, Semangalof. When the Holy Blessed One created the first Adam alone, They said, (Genesis 2:18) 'It is not good for this Adam to be alone.' They created for him a wife out of the Earth like he had been, and called her Lilith. Immediately they began to challenge each other. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the Earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the world's air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator and said, 'Sovereign of the universe! The woman you gave me has run away from me.' Immediately, the Holy Blessed One sent these three angels to bring her back. The Holy Blessed One said to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' They departed and pursued her, and overtook her in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians would ultimately drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.' She said to them, 'Let me be. I was created only to cause illness to infants. I have dominion over them for eight days after birth if they are male, and if female, after birth for twenty days.' When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted on taking her. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God, 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write their names on the amulets of young children, and she sees them, she remembers her oath, and the child is healed." After some time, the king said to him, "I have one daughter who sneezes [note- a euphemism for passing gas] one thousand sneezes in an hour. Heal her." He said to him, "Send her to me in the morning with her guards and I will heal her." In the morning, she came to him with her guards. When he saw her, he began to get angry. She said to him, "Why did you get angry?" He said to her, "Your father has decreed upon me to sneeze a thousand sneezes before him tomorrow and in two days, and I am afraid that he will kill me. He has waited for me for three days, and I do not know what I will do." She said to him, "Do not worry about this- I will go in your place and I will sneeze before him a thousand sneezes for you and for myself." He said to her, "Since that is the case, stay with me for three days and do not sneeze during them, and be 'prepared for the third day.' Immediately, every time when the sneeze came to her, she would stand on her feet and stretch between her eyes, as he had told her, and she suffered with herself and closed her mouth little by little, and the sneeze ended from her entirely. After three days, no sneeze came from her mouth. On the third day, he took her to her father and said to her, "Go sneeze two thousand sneezes for your father." She went before him, and she could not sneeze even one time. Immediately, he stood up and kissed him. He began asking him questions. He said to him:
