The Book of Shadows is among the most important sacred texts in Wicca, but there is no definitive version. Each coven, or group of witches (the term "witch," incidentally, often refers to both men and women), has its own, containing the spells, rituals, incantations and basic beliefs of the coven. Traditionally, witches copy their books from others but keep only those elements that appeal to them, ensuring that no two books are exactly alike.

While there is no single text describing a set of beliefs common to all Wiccans, all Wiccans are expected to abide by a rule called the Wiccan Rede: "An it harm none, do as ye will."

The term hijab, which literally means "partition" or "barrier" in Arabic, refers to both the headscarf worn by Muslim women and the practice in Islam of women dressing modestly outside the home. The emphasis on modest dress stems from the Koran, which says that Muslim women "should not display their beauty and ornaments" (Koran 24:31), and that "they should cast their outer garments over their persons" (Koran 33:59). The world's various Muslim societies have interpreted these passages differently, with some only requiring that a woman veil her face and hair while others insist that a woman cover herself entirely from head to foot.

There is no consensus among Jews about what happens after death, in large part because the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures) says little on the subject. There are some references, in the book of Psalms for instance, to a dark place deep in the earth called She'ol, alongside references to the dead going "down to the Pit," but they are not elaborated on. Elsewhere, death is described as a return to the dust from which man was created, as in Ecclesiastes 3:20, which says, "All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." While this implies there is no afterlife, another view appearing repeatedly in the Torah says the virtuous are reunited with their ancestors after death (the wicked are conversely "cut off" from their people), suggesting some form of life continues.

Olam ha-ba, literally "the world to come" in Hebrew, is another debated concept of the afterlife and appears in the Talmud, a vast compilation of oral laws and rabbinical commentaries central to Orthodox Judaism. Of the two chief interpretations of the term, one says it refers to the immortality of the soul, which is said to persist after physical death. According to this doctrine, the righteous will go to Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden, after death, while everyone else goes to Gehinnom, a hell based in the pit imagery of the Torah where souls are purified for up to one year. The other interpretation of the term says it refers to this world as it will be after after the messiah arrives and the dead are resurrected, known tehiyat ha-metim. Though most traditional Jewish movements believe in the messianic resurrection of the dead, the Reform movement officially rejects the doctrine.