A Goodreads user asked Rick Riordan:

I am a huge fan of all things Percy Jackson, and I just wanted to ask: what was your inspiration for Samirah al-Abbas, and how did you figure out how to handle any religion-related things about her? Because I am a Muslim, and I really like the way it's done.

Rick Riordan I'm glad you enjoyed her character. Like so many of my characters, she was inspired by former students of mine. I taught quite a few Muslima students in Texas, and they shared a lot about Islam with me. I was a social studies teacher, teaching world cultures, so I tried to do as much research as I could before I did a unit on Islam. I read a ton of books, several English interpretations of the Quran, several collections of Hadith, took an Arabic class, etc. I didn't realize I would be using this later, when I wrote a Muslima character, but there are interesting historic ties between Islam and the Vikings, so it made sense to add Samirah. I certainly didn't get everything right, and my portrayal didn't work for every reader, but I do love her character and I'm glad you did too. My main goal is always to make characters seem like real, relatable people who could exist in the world.

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