When Vathek is referenced in other works, it's usually through the name "Vathek" indicating a bad person or a bad place. Vathek also was the first work in which ghouls live underground, something that didn't catch on until the idea was reused in "Pickman's Model".
Comic Books
- Warlord of Mars: The Vathek are a plague-turned vampiric species that hails from Strio (Saturn) and its moon Vona (Titan).
Literature
- "Desert Sands" by Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford: In one scene, Eos reads aloud from Eothen. The protagonist doesn't want to hear it because he doesn't want to think about the East, but he doesn't give that as his reason. She obliges and, unaware what bothers her companion, picks up Vathek next.
- "The Ghoul": The time period of the events is given to be "during the reign of the Caliph Vathek".
- The Giaour by Lord Byron: The eponymous Giaour is inspired by and named after his namesake in '"Vathek''.
- Mean Streets: Many of the planets in the Mutter's Spiral are references to other fiction. One of these planets is Vathek II.
- "Pickman's Model": Like the ghouls in Vathek, the ghouls in "Pickman's Model" live underground.
- Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells: Of all the books George Ponderevo mentions having read in his youth, he is most fond of Vathek. Thinking of it affects him with deep nostalgia for his childhood reading sessions.
Music
- One album by Luis Delgado, a Spanish musician that specializes in Arab-Andalusian music, is called Vathek.
Tabletop Games
- Dark Heresy: The heretek magos Vathek is obsessed with restoring life to dead tissue, for which purpose he has created the Sarcosan wave generator. In fact, Vathek's own long-deceased body is propelled by a Scarosan wave generator built into his torso.
Video Games
- Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure: The villain of the bonus level "Dragon's Peak" is a dragon usurper named Vathek.
- Warframe: Councilor Vay Hek's favored units are fast-growing Grineer clones called Ghouls.
Western Animation
- Extreme Ghostbusters: In "Deadliners", the three horrifically malformed-looking villains are collectively known as the Vathek.
