Often confused with anjanas, they existed throughout Spain. Characters of the legend remain of the Saracen armies that moved north, Christianized or not, they are all enchanted.

They are women who accompanied the Saracen armies and when they retreated, defeated in the mountains, they were left behind in fear and sometimes guarding treasures that the Moors had obtained in their raids. Since then, enchanted and chained to the caves by the chains of fear, they only come out on nights of the full moon, to look for water while they sing sad songs. Sometimes, they have no choice but to go down to the houses to get food, for which they used to take advantage of Sundays.

Some Moorish princesses guard treasures. Especially the princess of the Cueva de la Quilama, who during the night of San Juan can be heard wailing, and if anyone dares to try to reach the treasures, they disappear, die, or go mad.

Sometimes the mora is not enchanted but is responsible for the formation of some striking morphological landmarks. For example, there is a hill in Avila, called the hill of “El Berrueco” which, according to legend, comes from the sand that a Moorish queen who was walking around took off her sandals.And when it does not speak expressly of enchanted Moorish women, nor phenomena provoked by them in life, it does use the Moors (Sar

acens) to name countless treasures that they hid and that await those who can get them.

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