It is suspected that the three terms may have been attached respectively to the "rising," the "culminating," and the "setting sun," since they do not appear to interchange; while the name Gula is distinctly stated in one inscription to belong to the "great" goddess, "the wife of the meridian Sun." It is perhaps an objection to this view, that the male Sun, who is decidedly the superior deity, does not appear to be manifested in Chaldaea under any such threefold representation.
As a substantive deity, distinct from her husband, Gula's characteristics are that she presides over life and over fecundity.

It is not quite clear whether these offices belong to her alone, or whether she is associated in each of them with a sister goddess.

There is a "Mistress of Life," who must be regarded as the special dispenser of that blessing; and there is a "Mistress of the Gods," who is expressly said to "preside over births." Concerning these two personages we cannot at present determine whether they are really distinct deities, or whether they are not rather aspects of Gula, sufficiently marked to be represented in the temples by distinct idols.
Gula was worshipped in close combination with her husband, both at Larsa and Sippara.

Her name appears in the inscriptions connected with both places; and she is probably the "Anammelech," whom the Sepharvites honored in conjunction with Adrammelech, the "Fire-King." In later times she had also temples independent of her husband, at Babylon and Borsippa, as well as at Calah Asshur.
The emblem now commonly regarded as symbolizing Gula is the eight-rayed disk or orb, which frequently accompanies the orb with four rays in the Babylonian representations.

In lieu of a disk, we have sometimes an eight-rayed star and even occasionally a star with six rays only.