[8][9] Her now-lost major shrine was between Mecca and Medina on the coasts of the Red Sea,[10] likely in al-Mushallal where an idol of her was erected.

[11] The Banu Aws and Banu Khazraj were considered to be among the most devoted of tribes to the goddess, so much that the place to make sacrifices to her was commonly referred to by its significance to the Khazraj,[11] as known from a poem most likely written by Abd-al-‘Uzza ibn-Wadi‘ah al-Muzani: An oath, truthful and just, I swore By Manāh, at the sacred place of the Khazraj[1]Her early representations included a wooden portrait of her, which was covered with sacrificial blood,[2] but the most notable representation of her was her idol erected in al-Mushallal.

According to Ibn al-Kalbi, when worshipers would circumambulate the Kaaba, they would chant her name along with that of her sisters, al-Lat and al-Uzza, seeking their blessings and intercession.

In its essential form, the story reports that Muhammad longed to convert his kinsmen and neighbors of Mecca to Islam.

[18] According to the Ghaznavid court poet Farrukhi Sistani, who claimed to have accompanied Mahmud on his raid, Somnat (as rendered in Persian) was a garbled version of su-manat referring to the goddess Manat.

According to him as well as a later Ghaznavid historian Abu Sa'id Gardezi, the images of the other goddesses were destroyed in Arabia but the one of Manat was secretly sent away to Kathiawar (in modern Gujarat) for safe keeping.