She escaped from her stepmother who had tried to kill her, to Mt. Hibari of Yamato Province, where she became a nun at Taima-dera Temple (another legend says that it was because she mourned over her father's degradation), and she made devotional exercises at the temple and gained assistance from Buddha due to her virtues, and she could make Taima mandala (mandala based on Kanmuryoju-kyo [The Amitayur dhuyana Sutra]) weaving with lotus thread in one night.
継母の暗殺から大和国雲雀山に逃れて、當麻寺（たいまでら）に入り尼となり（一説には父の左遷を悲しんだためとされる）勤行に励んで、徳によって仏の助力を得て、一夜で蓮糸で当麻曼荼羅（観無量寿経の曼荼羅）を織ったとされている。