Sarah, originally named Sarai and known in Jewish tradition as Sarah Imeinu, was the wife of Avraham and the first of the four Matriarchs. According to the Midrash and the Talmud she was also a prophetess, and she is counted among the seven prophetesses of Israel; the Sages call her the greatest of them. Some identify her with Yiskah, daughter of Haran.

At sixty-five she accompanied Avram to the land of Canaan at God's command. During a famine the couple went down to Egypt, where Sarai was taken to Pharaoh's palace because of her beauty before being returned to her husband. Still childless, she gave her maidservant Hagar to Avram, who had Yishmael by her.

When God changed Avram's name to Avraham, He also changed Sarai's name to Sarah and promised that she would bear a son from whom nations and kings would come. She gave birth to Yitzchak at the age of ninety. The Midrash portrays her as at times surpassing her husband in spiritual and prophetic power, and God told Avraham to heed all that she said, notably when she asked that Hagar and Yishmael be sent away.

Throughout her life three miracles were present in her tent: a cloud signifying the Divine Presence was attached to it, the lamp burned from one Shabbat eve to the next, and the dough was blessed. They ceased at her death and returned only when Yitzchak brought Rivkah into the tent.

Sarah died at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven in Kiryat Arba, that is Hebron; according to the Midrash, from the shock of hearing of the Binding of Yitzchak. Avraham bought the Cave of Machpelah from Efron the Hittite for her burial, and she was laid to rest there. One tradition places her passing on 1 Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah.