Iabet (Iabtet, Iab, Abet, Abtet, Ab) was the goddess of the Eastern Desert, of fertility and rebirth. She was a personification of the land of the east – iabt – and was known as Khentet-Iabet (Khentet-abet), ‘Before the East’.
She was believed to wash the god Ra, and was linked to the rising of the sun in the east. The Egyptian hieroglyph Emblem of the East is a portrayal of a standard, surmounted by the “Symbol of the East”. It represents the Goddess Iabet.
Her companion goddess Imentet, personification of the afterlife, is represented by the “Emblem of the West”. The symbol for the “West”/”right” was considered ‘good’, and thus the East symbol sometimes symbolized the opposite of good, evil. However, as the sun rises in the East, the solar cult often used the symbol.