The spin Hall effect enables pure spin-current generation without charge transport. Notably, its intrinsic contribution, originating from spin-orbit coupling, can exhibit universal values that are robust against parameter fluctuations. Recent extensions of this effect to high-spin systems predict rich transport phenomena, including various high-rank spin tensor Hall currents. Here, we experimentally realize the intrinsic rank-2 spin tensor Hall effect in a spin-1 manifold of a single trapped ion by engineering effective spin tensor–momentum coupling in parameter space. We theoretically propose and experimentally observe that a controlled parameter quench produces the universal rank-2 spin tensor Hall effects, with measured conductivity of $0.93\left(18\right)q/8\pi$ close to the expected value of $q/8\pi$, while rank-1 spin vector and rank-zero charge currents vanish by symmetry. In contrast, a spin vector–momentum coupled model yields the conventional rank-1 conductivity of $0.79\left(8\right)q/4\pi$, close to the expected value of $q/4\pi$ with no tensor response. Our results establish trapped ions as a powerful platform for exploring higher-rank spin transport and open avenues for quantum simulations of exotic tensorial phenomena in high-spin systems.

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• High spin states
• Quantum simulation
• Spin Hall effect
• Ions
• Coherent control