So the honest first answer is: the books never read the spider as one thing. The same insect carries a deceiver, a craftsman, a saint and — in one book — a pleasing wife, and the books list the alternatives without resolving them. What decides the reading is the scene: whose bed, whose ceiling, whether the spider weaves or you do. The scenarios people actually dream are below: plain answers first, no Arabic on this screen, every quote checked to its printed page.
You saw a spider — the general reading
Both entries open with a person. The compilation: "a spider represents a malicious woman, or a weak, perfidious and a distant man." Al-Nabulsi, same shape, harsher detail: a cursed woman who deserts her husband's bed; and whoever sees a spider "sees a scheming man," weak and irresolute. Then both books add the second and third faces: the spider is a weaver; it is an ascetic or a monk. The compilation: seeing a spider "may mean that he will meet a pious and a religious man." Al-Nabulsi: whoever comes across a spider "keeps the company of a devout ascetic." Deceiver, craftsman, saint — one insect, three candidates, and the entry leaves the choice with the details of your dream.
A spider web, or the spider weaving
The web is read as frailty, not as craft. The compilation, flatly: "Weaving a web in a dream means becoming weak." Al-Nabulsi grounds the same verdict with scripture: the spider's house and its weaving are weakness and frailty — and he cites the Quran directly: "the weakest of houses is indeed the spider's house" (29:41). Al-Nabulsi alone adds the trade clause: the spider can also mean knowledge of weaving and needlework. Follow his citation chain one step further and the web darkens: the compilation's own "Weaver" entry says seeing a weaver "may indicate the death of sick person, or lowering his corps into his grave" — a death reading attached to the spider's trade, but never stated in the spider's entry itself.
A spider hanging down from the ceiling
This is the clause the two books mirror almost word for word. The compilation: "If one sees a spider hanging down from the ceiling in a dream, it indicates a severe winter in that area." Al-Nabulsi: a spider seen falling from the ceilings is evidence of the severity of winter — same insect, same ceiling, same season, a thousand years apart. Notice what it does to the entry: a book that has spent the whole clause list reading the spider as a person suddenly reads it as a weather forecast for a whole district. Neither author edits the other face out.
A tarantula, or a spider that harms you
The compilation gives the dangerous spider its own entry, and it is the sternest person in the pair: a tarantula represents "a loathsome and an evil woman who interferes with people's business and damages their interests, or who destroys what they repair and denies having anything to do with their sufferings." The entry even explains where the reading comes from — the legendary nervous disease once believed to follow a tarantula's bite — and then adds that this harmless hairy spider, seen in a dream, "could represent a lethal enemy of a fierce sting, scowling, or a despising look." The bite-scene, in other words, is read as a face, not as venom.
What the Chinese tradition says
Stated plainly: the received Zhou Gong dream book — the 27-chapter text this site quotes everywhere else — carries no spider entry at all. We checked the corpus line by line; the word does not appear, and this page does not stretch its beetle or worm lines to fill the gap. Older Chinese material does survive, quoted inside the 10th-century encyclopedia Taiping Yulan: two lines from an earlier Meng shu dream book say that dreaming of a spider brings joyous events on that day — while a second line in the same quotation ties the spider to a worry about a pregnant woman. Same object, two verdicts, same book: exactly the structure the Arabic entries show. Folk lore kept the cheerful reading: the long-legged spider was called "little joy," and its arrival at a person announced a visiting relative.
The finding: two books mirroring, one entry arguing with itself
Set the two Arabic entries side by side and the clause order rhymes: cursed / malicious woman first, then the weak scheming man, then the weaver, then the ascetic or monk, and finally the ceiling clause and its severe winter. Al-Nabulsi (d. 1731) wrote a millennium after the material attributed to Ibn Sirin, and his Arabic and the compilation's English run the same machine — with each book holding one card the other does not: the compilation alone offers "a pleasing wife," and alone prices the bite through its separate Tarantula entry; Al-Nabulsi alone brands the spider "the sorceress woman," adds the weaving-trade clause, and quotes the Quran to prove the web is frailty. The deeper disagreement is inside each entry, not between them: the same paragraph that calls the spider a malicious woman calls it a pious man's counterpart a sentence later, and Al-Nabulsi's cursed woman who deserts her husband's bed shares one headword with the devout ascetic whose company you keep. These books are not deciding whether the spider is good or bad. They are saying the spider is a mask — and what wears it, woman, craftsman, monk or season, is the actual content of the dream.
And the Chinese record adds the reversal no folk summary of "spider dream meaning" repeats: the oldest quoted dream book on the spider — older than the received Zhou Gong text, preserved only because an imperial encyclopedia copied it — reads the insect as joy arriving that day, while the Arabic books read it as a deceiver. And even that old Chinese dream book carries two lines that disagree with each other — joy that day, and a worry about a pregnancy. The long-legged "little joy" announces a guest; Al-Nabulsi's spider deserts a marital bed. Same eight legs, opposite door.
The entries, briefly
The Arabic side comes from two books: the compiled English dictionary attributed to Ibn Sirin (Pearl Publishing House, 1992 — "Spider" entry printed p. 404, "Tarantula" entry printed p. 429, "Weaver" entry printed p. 473, per the book's own end-of-volume page index and printed running heads) and the Arabic original of Al-Nabulsi's Ta'tir al-Anam, whose (عنكبوت) headword begins at shamela.ws/book/1217/247 (printed p. 250, باب العين) and runs over onto shamela.ws/book/1217/248 (printed p. 251). The Chinese side is an honest absence in the received Zhou Gong book, plus two quoted lines of the older Meng shu preserved in the Taiping Yulan (juǎn 948). One sample of each book, translated, then the full checked passages in the sources section at the bottom.
"Spider: In a dream, a spider represents a malicious woman, or a weak, perfidious and a distant man. A spider in a dream also represents a weaver, an ascetic or a monk. If one sees a spider in his dream, it may mean that he will meet a pious and a religious man. Weaving a web in a dream means becoming weak. A spider in a dream also could represent a pleasing wife. If one sees a spider hanging down from the ceiling in a dream, it indicates a severe winter in that area. (Also see Tarantula)"
(عنكبوت) هو في المنام امرأة ملعونة تهجر فراش زوجها.
(ومن رأى) بيت العنكبوت ونسجها ضعف ووهن لقوله تعالى: {وإن أوهن البيوت لبيت العنكبوت} .
Zhou Gong, stated plainly: the received Chinese dream book this site quotes chapter by chapter carries no spider entry — checked against the full 27-chapter corpus, zero occurrences. What the Chinese tradition does record sits in the older Meng shu, quoted in the Taiping Yulan (983 CE): seeing a spider means joyous events that day; a second quoted line reads it as a worry about a pregnant woman; and the encyclopedia's folk-lore citations call the long-legged spider "little joy," an arrival of kinsmen. All quoted at location in the sources section; nothing else is claimed for the Chinese side.
What modern research adds — and what it doesn't
No typical-theme survey has published a prevalence figure for dreams of spiders: the standard questionnaires (the 55-item Typical Dreams Questionnaire and its relatives) ask about being chased, falling, and teeth — not about species. The closest measured record is a single-case diary analyzed by Schredl (International Journal of Dream Research 6(1):59–64, 2013, DOI 10.11588/ijodr.2013.1.9609): 8,420 dreams recorded by one man over 23 years — animals present in about 7% of the dreams (577 of them), spiders appearing 14 times, and spiders and snakes topping the table of species involved in negative interactions (the spider was the most named species among dreams of killing or hurting an animal, and among fighting). The paper is explicit that these negative spider and snake contacts had no counterpart in the dreamer's waking life — he kept cats and a hamster, not arachnids — and attributes them to phylogenetic prepared fears rather than waking-life contact. The fear side is well measured, at the group level: in the Swedish community sample behind that hypothesis (704 adults aged 18–70, randomly drawn; abstract re-pulled today from PubMed 8561762), animal phobia — the category Fredrikson and colleagues' factor analysis puts spiders and snakes in, with spiders being the field's standard exemplar — had a point prevalence of 12.1% in women and 3.3% in men (Fredrikson et al., Behaviour Research and Therapy 34(1):33–39, 1996; the spider-specific 3.5% — 5.6% of women, 1.2% of men — is how that paper is quoted in later review literature and is reported here as a secondary figure, not as text we re-read from the primary table). Specific phobia overall runs at 7.4% lifetime across 22 countries, with a median onset age of 8 (Wardenaar et al., Psychological Medicine 47:1744–1760, 2017, PubMed 28222820 — abstract re-read today). One further paper belongs on a spider page by sheer symmetry: jumping-spider spiderlings cycle through regular bouts of retinal movement and leg curling during night rest — an REM sleep-like state in an invertebrate (Rößler et al., PNAS 119(33):e2204754119, 2022, PubMed 35939710) — a finding about the spider's own sleep, not about anyone's dream of it. That is the honest line under this page's mirror: research counts how often the insect appears and how many people fear it; the classical books assign what the mask is worn by — and neither layer contains a variable called "what the dream means."
Sources (all passages checked against the cited pages)
Ibn Sirin compilation — "Spider" entry, printed p. 404 (Ibn Seerin's Dictionary of Dreams, compiled by Muhammad M. Al-Akili, Pearl Publishing House 1992, ISBN 1879405032; a later compilation attributed to the 8th-century scholar, not his autograph text; the book's own page index lists Spider at 404): "Spider: In a dream, a spider represents a malicious woman, or a weak, perfidious and a distant man. A spider in a dream also represents a weaver, an ascetic or a monk. If one sees a spider in his dream, it may mean that he will meet a pious and a religious man. Weaving a web in a dream means becoming weak. A spider in a dream also could represent a pleasing wife. If one sees a spider hanging down from the ceiling in a dream, it indicates a severe winter in that area. (Also see Tarantula)". Related entries, same compilation — "Tarantula," printed p. 429: "Tarantula: (Hairy spider; Spider) A tarantula in a dream represents a loathsome and an evil woman who interferes with people's business and damages their interests, or who destroys what they repair and denies having anything to do with their sufferings. In a dream, this interpretation is based on the legendary nervous disease, formerly believed to be caused by a poisonous bite of a tarantula. Thus, when this harmless hairy spider is seen in a dream, it also could represent a lethal enemy of a fierce sting, scowling, or a despising look. (Also see Spider)". — "Weaver," printed p. 473: "Weaver: (Knitting) In a dream, a weaver represents a problem solver, garments, travels, or hesitation. Seeing a weaver in a dream also may indicate the death of sick person, or lowering his corps into his grave."
Al-Nabulsi — (عنكبوت), shamela.ws/book/1217/247, printed p. 250, continuing at /248, printed p. 251 (Ta'tir al-Anam fi Ta'bir al-Manam, Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi d. 1731 CE, Dar al-Fikr edition; باب العين; translation ours): "(عنكبوت) هو في المنام امرأة ملعونة تهجر فراش زوجها. (ومن رأى) عنكبوتاً فإنه يرى رجلاً مكايداً ضعيفاً متوانياً وقيل العنكبوت رجل نساج وقيل هو رجل عابد زاهد فمن أصاب عنكبوتاً صاحب رجلاً عابداً زاهداً. (ومن رأى) بيت العنكبوت ونسجها ضعف ووهن لقوله تعالى: {وإن أوهن البيوت لبيت العنكبوت} . والعنكبوت يدل على المرأة السحارة وربما دل على معرفة النسج والحياكة. (ومن رأى) العنكبوت ساقطاً من السقوف فذلك دليل على شدة الشتاء. — the spider in a dream: a cursed woman who deserts her husband's bed; whoever sees a spider sees a scheming man, weak and irresolute; it is said the spider is a weaver, and it is said he is a devout ascetic — whoever comes across a spider keeps the company of a devout ascetic; the spider's house and its weaving are weakness and frailty, for the saying of the Most High: 'and indeed the weakest of houses is the spider's house'; the spider also indicates the sorceress woman, and perhaps knowledge of weaving and needlework; and a spider seen falling from the ceilings is evidence of the severity of winter. (The headword sentence runs across the page break: p. 250 ends at مكايداً and p. 251 resumes at ضعيفاً.)
Zhou Gong Jie Meng — received 27-chapter text: no spider entry; its insect chapter (ch. 27) runs verdicts on shrimp, snails, dragonflies and mole-crickets but the spider word appears nowhere in the corpus (full-corpus grep for either character of 蜘蛛: zero occurrences — recorded as absence, not filled with adjacent lines). Older Meng shu, quoted in Taiping Yulan juǎn 948 (虫豸部五 蜘蛛; digital text cross-checked: Siku edition at shidianguji.com and guoxue123.com, one variant noted): "梦书曰：梦蜘蛛者，其日遂有喜事。" — "The dream book says: whoever dreams of a spider — joyous events on that day."; "梦书曰：蜘蛛为大腹，其性然也。梦见蜘蛛，忧怀妊妇人也。" — "The dream book says: the spider is great-bellied, its nature so; to dream of a spider is a worry concerning a pregnant woman." (the guoxue123 printing reads 任 for 妊 at that position; the 四库 printing used here reads 妊). — "诗义疏曰：一名长脚，荆州河内谓之喜子，云此虫来着人，当有亲客至。" — the Mao-Shi commentary: the long-legged spider is called "little joy" in Jingzhou and Henei, and when this insect lands on a person, a visiting kinsman is about to arrive. All are quoted at location; the encyclopedia framing, not a modern dream book, is stated on this page.
Modern research. Schredl M. "Animal dreams in a long dream series." International Journal of Dream Research 6(1):59–64, 2013. DOI 10.11588/ijodr.2013.1.9609 (full PDF re-extracted today: one male dreamer, 8,420 dreams, Sept 1984–Dec 2007; animals in 577 dreams = 6.85%; Table 2: Spider = 14 occurrences; Table 4: spider the most named species in fighting (2) and in killing/hurting (5); negative interactions most often with spiders, snakes, insects; the author attributes the snake/spider contacts to prepared fears — phylogenetic rather than waking-life continuity; adult animal-dream frequency in other samples 5–10%). Fredrikson M, Annas P, Fischer H, Wik G. "Gender and age differences in the prevalence of specific fears and phobias." Behaviour Research and Therapy 34(1):33–39, 1996. PubMed 8561762, DOI 10.1016/0005-7967(95)00048-3 (abstract re-pulled today via NCBI eutils: 704 respondents of 1,000 randomly selected Swedish adults aged 18–70; factor analysis groups spiders and snakes as animal phobias; animal phobia prevalence 12.1% women / 3.3% men; any specific phobia 19.9% overall — 26.5% F / 12.4% M. The spider-specific 3.5% figure cited on this page comes from later literature quoting this study (e.g., the intro and refs of PMC8740501, which prints "3.5% in Sweden... 1.2% of men and 5.6% of women"), and is labeled as that secondary reading on this page.) Wardenaar KJ et al. "The cross-national epidemiology of specific phobia in the World Mental Health Surveys." Psychological Medicine 47:1744–1760, 2017. PubMed 28222820 (22 countries, n = 124,902; lifetime 7.4%, 12-month 5.5%; females 9.8% vs males 4.9%; median age of onset 8). Rößler DC, Kim K, De Agrò M, Jordan A, Galizia CG, Shamble PS. "Regularly occurring bouts of retinal movements suggest an REM sleep-like state in jumping spiders." PNAS 119(33):e2204754119, 2022. PubMed 35939710 (spiderlings n = 34; retinal-movement bouts median 77.13 s, recurring about every 17 min; the paper reports an REM sleep-like state, not spider dreams). No published typical-theme study reports a prevalence of spider dreams — that absence is stated on this page, not papered over.
This page reports what two classical Arabic texts, the received Chinese dream book (including its honest silence on the spider), and adjacent published research can see about dreams of spiders. It is not a prediction, a medical or religious ruling, and no dream book — classical or modern — settles what a dream means for the person who had it. If this dream unsettled you, note the one move every source on this page makes in its own form: the spider is read as whatever is wearing it — a person, a trade, a season, a guest — not as the animal itself.
Related questions
- Snake bite dream: disgrace or windfall — the other animal the research layer calls a prepared fear
- Dog dreams — the same diary series' most human animal, measured by waking contact
- Dreaming of a wedding — the book whose marriage entry shares the unfaithful-woman clause
- Teeth dreams across the three traditions — how this page reads every symbol
- Teeth falling out dream — the classic page that started this site