Nikkal, with fruits in Her skirt and date-palm trees behind. Pen and ink with watercolor.

Nikkal is the Canaanite Goddess of fruits and fertility, Who is a Goddess of orchards. Her husband is the moon God Yarikh, Who causes the dew to fall each night and water Her trees so that they may thrive. Her name comes from the west Semitic 'Ilat 'Inbi, or "Goddess of Fruit", and She is also called Nikkal-wa-Ib, meaning "Great Lady and Fruitful". She is the daughter of the summer God Khirkhibi, who did not at first want Her to marry Yarikh, and instead suggested He marry either Pidraya or Yabarodmay, both daughters of Ba'al. After a generous bride-price was offered, made up of a thousand pieces of silver, ten thousand pieces of gold, and including necklaces made of lapis lazuli (appropriate coming from a God of the night sky) Khirkhibi relented and the two were wed. Later, the Kothirat, the "Skillful Goddesses" of marriage and childbirth, come to oversee the birth of the son of Nikkal and Yarikh.

Alternately, Nikkal is sometimes called the daughter of Dagon of Tuttul, who, like Nikkal-wa-Ib, is a Deity of fertility and agriculture, specifically a wheat God credited with inventing the plow. The Goddess Ningal of Sumeria, with whom Nikkal has been identified, is often depicted before a date tree, and other important fruit-trees of the area that would have been in Nikkal's orchards are the olive, fig, and apple, along with nut trees such as the pistachio, walnut, and almond.

Her connection with Yarikh has sometimes caused Her to be labeled a Goddess of the moon Herself; given that the moon is almost always considered male in the Semitic cultures, I find this unlikely.

Her Sumerian equivalent is Ningal, "the Great Lady", wife of Nanna the moon God. Their twin children are Inanna, Goddess of the planet Venus, and Utu, the Sun God. In the later, but closely related, Babylonian tradition She is still called Ningal, but Her husband the Moon-God is named Sin. Their children are Ishtar and Shamash, the Sun-God, who is a male version of the Canaanite Sun-Goddess Shapash.

She is sometimes simply called 'Ib, "the Fruitful One". Nikkal-wa-Ib has also been interpreted as "Great Lady and Bright", "Great Goddess of Fruit", or "Fruits of the Earth". The meaning of the name of Her Sumerian and Babylonian counterpart, Ningal, is "the Lady of the Temple".