The “History of the Blessed Virgin Mary” is an Eastern Christian compilation of apocryphal texts that contains a complete biography of the Virgin Mary. The text is compiled on the basis of a number of sources and is formatted according to the rules of the canon of the hagiographic genre that developed in Byzantium, but is represented in all Christian literatures. In accordance with the scheme of the hagiographic genre, the author of the compilation completed the story with a description of the posthumous miracles performed by the Theotokos. In the extended edition of the “History” there are 9 such miracles, and in some of them there is a theme of rescue at sea. This is due to the fact that Theotokos began to be endowed with functions borrowed from the Mediterranean cult of the pagan goddess Isis. The article deals with the Miracle of the merchant and the three pearls. The story has a literary and folklore character. One can find many elements of a fairy tale in it. It is also possible to identify literary sources dating back to the Christian tradition (the Gospel parable of the merchant and the pearl and its interpretation by the Church fathers). The story does not present the interpretation of the pearl as a symbol for the Kingdom of Heaven, which is usual for the Christian tradition, but its folk perception, based on the theology of Ephraim the Syrian, a Syrian Church father of the 4th century, who revealed the dogma of the Incarnation through the symbolism of pearls, which represent both the innocence of the Virgin Mary and the Christian Church with the Son-Christ within her.