It means “daughter of YHWH” in Hebrew, from the roots בַּת (bat) meaning “daughter” and יָה (yah) the diminutive used for the Holy Name of GOD. In the Old Testament this is the name of a daughter of Pharaoh (1Chronicles 4, 17) and traditionally identified with the woman who drew Moses from the rushes of the Nile. A man named Mered, son of Ezrah, a man of Judah, takes her as his wife and they become the parents of Miriam, Shammai and Ishbah.

In Islam in contrast to the story as it is portrayed in Judaism and Christianity, this woman is known by the name of Asiya (reported in the Hadith Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 7.329) and the wife of Pharaoh (in the Quran, Sura 66 At-Tahrim verse 11). Moreover, she is not the one who extracts Moses from the Nile, but her servants, and Pharaoh, having learned of the boy’s existence, tries to kill him, but Asiya intervenes making him change his mind, allowing the boy to live. Mirroring the Judeo-Christian story, Jochebed is called to Pharaoh’s palace to be his wet nurse, but then her story, as told by Islam, once again deviates from the Judeo-Christian version, with Asiya being tortured to death at Pharaoh’s hands for professing faith in GOD.