The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism: Second Edition (2016)

Qabbalah: While this is a linguistically reasonable way to transliterate “Kabbalah ,” this spelling has become associated with Christian and Western Spiritualist/Occultist offshoots of Jewish mysticism that strip those teachings of their specifically Jewish/rabbinic content and attempt to fuse them with Christian doctrine and non-Jewish esoteric traditions, such as Hermeticism and Tarot. For this reason, it is useful to maintain a distinction between Jewish “kabbalah” and non-Jewish “Qabbalah.”

Qalir, Eleazar: Jewish liturgist (6th-7th century, Levant?). His intricate piyutim (liturgical poems) wove Jewish mythic and fabulous themes into Jewish worship.

Queen of Demons: SEE LILITH.

Queen of Sheba: The mysterious figure of the Queen who comes to test the wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 10:13) truly captured the Jewish imagination. In most early stories, she is a figure of exotic sexuality and intellectual acumen who tests Solomon with a variety of cunning puzzles and riddles (Mid. Mish. 1:1). In later Jewish literature, she comes to be regarded as a demon, a succubus that seduces men, even weds them, in order to lead them to their eventual ruin. Medieval Midrash regard “The Queen of Sheba” to be a moniker for Lilith.

Queens, the Four Demon: They are Lilith, Igrat, Malkat, and Naaman.

Qumran: (). A mysterious ancient habitation along the Dead Sea that is the closest ruin to the caves that contained the Dead Sea Scrolls. Archaeologists believe the DSS were the library of Qumran, but still argue over fundamental questions, such as whether the site was a communal center for the Essenes or a personal retreat for a wealthy Jerusalemite. This location has bequeathed scholars some of the earliest post-biblical mythic, mystical, and magical Hebrew texts known (4Q510-511; Q560; 11Q11).

Qumrin Tehirin: ( ). Night demons who interfere with the efforts of the soul to commune with the Godhead (Zohar I:83a).

QYNWLWGYH: ( ). This word, sometimes abbreviated , frequently appears in medieval Jewish magical formulae. Taken to be nomina barbara, it is, in fact, the Greek word koinologia (“conventional words”) transliterated into the Hebrew alef-bet. In its original context of Greek incantations, it is an instruction to the adept to extemporize, to improvise or customize, the language of the spell. The Hebrew and Aramaic copyists failed to render it as an instruction, and over time it was simply preserved as a voce magica, a word of power.¹

1. Bohak, Ancient Jewish Magic, 282-283.