The first scholar to write about Narjis as the mother of the twelfth Imam was Al-Masudi. According to his account, she was a Roman princess named Narjis. Ibn Babawayh was the first scholar to discuss the nationality of Narjis on the authority of Muhammad bin Bahr al-Shaybani, who attributed his narration to Bishr bin Sulayman al-Nakhkhas. According to Ibn Babawayh and Allamah Majlesi in al-Ghaibah, she was a Christian convert to Islam. Narjis was the granddaughter of a Roman Caesar who was a descendant of the Apostle Simon. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, in the "Encyclopædia Iranica", suggests that the last version is "undoubtedly legendary and hagiographic". However, nowadays almost all twelvers consider her to be a Roman princess.