Although unnamed, the Shulammite is specifically characterized in the Song of Solomon. She is described as very close to her mother, assertive, and extremely beautiful; images of plants and animals are often used to allude to her appearance.
Her narrative is sensual and filled with longing as she waits for her lover. The Shulammite does not shy away from declaring her feelings and desires, and the Bible portrays her as a complex woman whose eroticism is celebrated.
The Shulammite is the central figure in the Song of Solomon (also called Song of Songs or Canticles) and one of the most positive representations of young womanhood in the Hebrew Bible.
As the embodiment of erotic pleasure, innocent and savored for its own sake, she is to be contrasted, on the one hand, with the wily seductress of Proverbs 7, whose sexuality is insidious and destructive, and on the other with figures such as Tamar and Ruth, whose sexual boldness is in the service of perpetuating the family line. In the Shulammite, indeed, we find one of the most unqualified celebrations of female eroticism in all of Western literature.
Like her lover, the Shulammite is not given a proper name. The epithet “the Shulammite,” which occurs (twice) in only one verse of the Song (6:13) and nowhere else in the Bible, is of uncertain meaning. Although she is not as fully articulated as the characters in biblical prose fiction, the Shulammite has a distinct consistency of characterization throughout the Song.