Legend has it that Lishan Laomu, whose surname and origin remain mysterious, is a supremely elevated female immortal dwelling deep within the Mount Li.

[6][7][d] A divine woman or "nymph" (神女) associated with the hot spring west or northwest of Mount Li was encountered by the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang from the nearby capital city of Xianyang, according to a lost Late Han source, the San Qinji (三秦記, ′Record of the Three Qin′), and scholars believe this "nymph" should be identified with Lishan Laomu.

[11][8][12][13][g] During the Tang dynasty, Taoist Li Quan was a military governor fond of the way of the immortals who often travelled to spiritual places in the mountains; according to legend, he met with Lishan Laomu at the foot of Lishan Mountain, and Laomu taught him the Huangdi Yinfujing (The Yellow Emperor's Scripture on "Unconscious Unification").

[15][16] A local myth collected in Zhongning County, Ningxia Province in 1986 makes Lishan Laomu and Wangmu Niangniang into sisters who collaborated in the task of mending the sky and earth.

[17] Luo Maodeng's popular novel Sanbao taijian xiyang ji states that Lishan Laomu holds a higher status than Sakyamuni Buddha and Jade Emperor.

[19] Her disciples and apprentices include Taoist ascetics such as Li Quan[20] and legendary female heroes, such as Zhongli Chun, Fan Lihua, Bai Suzhen, Zhu Yingtai, Mu Guiying, Liu Jinding, these women are heroine era.

[28] In another chapter, after Tang Sanzang and his disciples are defeated by the poison tea of the Hundred-Eyed Demon King, Lishan Laomu disguises herself as a mourning woman and holds her husband's funeral.

When Sun Wukong encountered her, she instructed him to go to the Thousand Flowers Cave in Ziyun Mountain and invite the bodhisattva Pilanpo to subdue the monster.

After giving her instructions, the woman vanished, and Lishan Laomu appeared in the sky, explaining that she had just returned from the Longhua [zh] meeting and she saw that Tang Seng was in trouble.

[28] The old zaju or operatic version text of The Journey to the West[h] styles the Lishan Laomu as the elder sister of the protagonist, the Monkey King Sun Wukong.

[29][30] The zaju version is made confusing because the title Qitian Dasheng [ja] (斉天大聖, 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven') which normally refers to Sun Wukong himself[i] is conferred to a supposed elder brother of his; meanwhile Sun Wukong adopts the slightly different title of Tongtian Dasheng (通天大聖, 'Great Sage Reaching Heaven').