[4][5] Shahmaran is attested in Middle Eastern literature, such as in the tale "The Story of Yemliha: An Underground Queen" from the 1001 Arabian Nights, and in the Camasb-name.

[9] In one version, the first human Shahmaran encounters is a young man named Jamasp (Persian: Jāmāsp جاماسپ), who is also known by Yada Jamsab (other spellings are Jambs, Camasb, and Jamisav).

[10] He decides to explore the cave and finds a passage to a chamber that looks like a mystical and beautiful garden with thousands of off-white colored snakes and the Shahmaran living together harmoniously.

After a while, Hasîb wishes to return to the upper world, but the queen of serpents warns him that he will enter a bathhouse and this will lead to her death.

[16] The Kurds have traditionally viewed the serpent as a symbol of luck and strength, and they continue to have images of Shahmaran on glass or metal work, which is in turn displayed on their walls.

In their joint work, they registered a Turkish tale type indexed as TTV 57, "Der Schlangenkönig Schahmeran" ("The Serpent King Shahmeran"), with 7 variants listed.

In this tale type, the hero (a poor boy named Cami Sap, Camesel, or Canibis) goes to the woods and falls into a pit or hole where he meets Shahmeran; after some years down there, he returns to civilization; later, the antagonist (a local padishah or a sorcerer, depending on the variant) is alerted of Shahmeran's presence and wishes to consume of its flesh; Shahmeran instructs the poor boy: he is to cook its flesh and drink its broth, but only the second serving, and let the antagonist drink it first; the antagonist does and dies, while the hero becomes a skillful healer.

[21][22][better source needed] The latter tells the folk story of a boy that shares bread with animals and earns the respect of Shahmaran.

[24] Dutch singer of Iranian descent, Sevdaliza, included a song titled "Shahmaran" on her debut studio album ISON.

[27] The Shah Maran–Daulatabad basin is an ancient irrigation system from the Iron Age, found in the 1960s and 1970s near Tepe Yahya in southwestern Iran.