Jibril (Gabriel)

Six hundred wings, the horizon filled twice; every verse of every scripture passed through his trust.

The account

Jibril is the channel of revelation itself: "he brought it down upon your heart by permission of Allah" (2:97). The Qur'an gives him titles of rank and inviolability: the Trusted Spirit, "possessed of power, secure with the Owner of the Throne, obeyed there, trustworthy" (81:20-21). The Prophet ﷺ saw him in his true form twice: once at the horizon after Hira, six hundred wings blocking the sky, and once at the Lote Tree of the furthest limit during the Mi'raj (53:13-14).

Usually he came as a man: as Dihyah al-Kalbi, or as the traveler in white of the famous hadith of Jibril, who sat knee to knee with the Prophet and questioned him on islam, iman, and ihsan so the ummah would inherit its own syllabus, "that was Jibril, who came to teach you your religion." He pressed the first word of the Book into the Prophet at Iqra, reviewed the whole Qur'an with him every Ramadan and twice in the final year, led him through the heavens, and stood at Badr in the gear of war. Musa called him his companion at every calamity; this ummah recites his name in its creed among the angels believed in by name.

The facts