In the paper, the split quaternion matrix equation AXAη*=B is considered, where the operator Aη* is the η‐conjugate transpose of A, where η∈{i,j,k}. We propose some new real representations, which well exploited the special structures of the original matrices. By using this method, we obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for AXAη*=B to have X=±Xη* solutions and derive the general expressions of solutions when it is consistent. In addition, we also derive the general expressions of the least squares X=±Xη* solutions to it in case that this matrix equation is not consistent.