Interest and scholarship in the Arabic popular and oral literary tradition has, happily, been increasing in recent years. Critics are beginning to see oral poetry and popular epic not as faulty attempts at history or as cramped and repetitive forms of expression, but rather as part of an important worldwide phenomenon of heroic folk literature, with some fascinatingly unique Arabian elements. The role of women in this literature, especially in the popular epic cycles, has not yet been given as much attention as it deserves. Examining both the exceptional characters and the stock characters that appear in this popular literature can offer valuable insights both into the entertainment value of certain motifs and into the cultural values which inform character choices. In this paper, I re-examine and categorize the types of female characters found in four major Arabian epic tales: S?rat Ban? Hil?l, S?rat al-Malik Sayf b. Dh? Yazan, S?rat ‘Antar, and S?rat al-Am?ra Dh?t al-Himma. Combining the typologies of male characters that Peter Heath and M.C. Lyons have laid out, there are five general categorizations of men in these tales: The Hero, The Father, The Helper, The Man of Wiles, and The Villain. These categorizations, for the most part, split women into only two categories: the formidable warrior woman, who is exceptional, and all other females, who are generally categorized as being both weak-witted and dishonorable, characteristics which cause them to undermine the hero by antagonizing him and giving away his secrets. I argue, however, that all five of the aforementioned male categories have close female equivalents (The Heroine, The Mother, The Helper, The Woman of Wiles, and The Villainess), in addition to which exist two essential roles that can only be filled by females: The Romantic Interest and The Wife. By describing and comparing male and female stock characters in these major works of Arabian epic, I will show that these characters are not merely subservient foils to the male characters but are integral to the plots in their own right, revealing a more nuanced view of womanhood than many would like to suppose. Looking at the epics through the lens of feminist criticism widens the scope of their importance and sheds more light on the wonderful richness and complexity of these vital popular narratives.