When John first sees the harlot, she is in the wilderness (17:3). The only other references to the wilderness in Revelation are in chapter 12, where the mother of the heavenly King flees to the wilderness to escape from the dragon (12:6, 14).

The mother of Revelation 12, protected and nourished in the wilderness is a Hagar/Israel figure. And that suggests that the other woman in the wilderness, who doesn’t flee the beast but rides on it, is a false Hagar/Israel, the false bride, not Rome but Jerusalem.