The earliest recorded reference to Lilith is in the prologue to the Babylonian epic poem Gilgamesh, dating from as early as 2000 BCE. Lilith later appears in the ancient Jewish texts of the Torah, Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah along with the Alphabet of Ben Sira. In the Kabbalah, she is said to be the mate of Samael, one of the most well-known and powerful demons.

Talmund In the Talmud Adam is said to have separated from Eve for 130 years, during which time his ejaculations gave rise to ghouls and demons. Lilith is identified as the mother of these creatures because she would collect the seeds to impregnate herself and give birth to the demons. This is believed to be why masturbation is now considered a sin. When Adam asked God to return Lilith he sent three angels after her. They were to kill 100 of Lilith's children for each day she failed to return. Lilith responded to the threat with a threat of her own, she vowed to torment the children of Adam and Eve throughout eternity. Lilith and the demons were said to prey on newborn males before they had been circumcised. The story from The Alphabet of Ben-Sira stated mortal children could only be safe from Lilith if they invoked the angels that God sent to kill the lilins, her children. This made its way into Jewish traditions so medieval Jews placed an amulet with the angels' names - Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof - around male babies' necks until their circumcision. There is also a Hebrew tradition to wait three years before a boy's hair is cut in an attempt to trick Lilith into thinking the child is a girl so that the boy's life may be spared. Erubin 698: v1, pt2, 100b "[Expounding upon the curses of womanhood] In a Baraitha it was taught: She grows long hair like Lilith, sits when making water like a beast, and serves as a bolster for her husband." BB. 290: v3, pt2 "I saw how Hormin the son of Lilith was running on the parapet of the wall of Mahuza..." Shabbath 773: v1. pt1, 151b "R. Hanina said: One may not sleep in a house alone, and whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by Lilith." Niddah 166: v6, 24b "If an abortion had the likeness of Lilith its mother is unclean by reason of the birth, for it is a child, but it has wings. So it was also taught: R. Jose stated, It once happened at Simoni that a woman aborted the likeness of Lilith, and when the case came up for a decision before the Sages they ruled that it was a child but that it also had wings..."

Dead Sea Scrolls In the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls, Lilith is mentioned by name in fragment 1 of 4Q510 as part of the "Song for a Sage" where she appears in a list of demonic creatures. "And I, the Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendor so as to frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels, spirits of the bastards, demons, Lilith, howlers, and [desert dwellers…] and those which fall upon men without warning to lead them astray from a spirit of understanding and to make their heart and their […] desolate during the present dominion of wickedness and predetermined time of humiliations for the sons of lig[ht], by the guilt of the ages of [those] smitten by iniquity – not for eternal destruction, [bu]t for an era of humiliation for transgression." Alphabet of Ben Sira The Burney Relief, "Queen of the Night", ca. 1950 BC. The anonymous medieval texts of the Alphabet of Ben Sira tells us Lilith was actually the first women that God created, before Eve. She was created from dirt just as Adam was yet being female was still placed second to man. Lilith did not want to be merely a partner to Adam; she wanted to be above him or at least treated as an equal. She also refused to take the submissive position to Adam in sex, which consequently left him lonely. God had different plans for her so she continued to go against him until the day she was sent out of paradise and turned into a demoness. When Eve was created so Adam would no longer be alone she was not made from dirt as he was but from his rib so Eve would know she was not equal to man. Later Lilith returned to the garden after God created Eve disguising herself as serpent and out of vengeance convinced Eve to eat from the tree. It should be noted that Lilith is free of death, the punishment given to Adam and Eve, as she left long before the event occurred and is not a descendant of either of them.