Bearers of the Throne (ḥamlat al‑arsh)

Multiple transmitted reports offer differing notes on origins. One reported authority, Muqatil ibn Sulayman, is cited as saying the throne‑bearers were the first angels created. Other narrations present them as created from distinct elements (variously listed as light, fire, water, and mercy in some transmissions reported via Ibn Abi al‑Izz). These accounts appear in exegetical and hadith literature rather than a single unified cosmogony.

Accounts differ across sources. Some traditions (as preserved in summaries quoting al‑Suyuti via Wahb ibn Munabbih and al‑Bayhaqi) describe anthropomorphic or compound forms with four faces — human, bull, vulture, and lion — echoing a tetramorph motif. Other hadith variants attribute four faces and six wings, or four wings. A narration reported from At‑Targhib wat‑Tarhib (quoted in the summaries) describes them shaped like a rooster, "with their feet on the earth and their nape supporting the Throne of God in the highest sky." Hyperbolic size imagery appears in a hadith quoted in Ibn Abi al‑Izz (via Abu Dawud al‑Sijistani) stating they are so large that a journey from their earlobes to their shoulders would take seven hundred years. These differing details are preserved as variant transmissions rather than a single definitive iconography.

Sources consistently present their primary, recurring function as bearing or supporting al‑ʿArsh (the Throne of God). Some reports emphasize ontological primacy (e.g., being the first angels created, per Muqatil ibn Sulayman). A transmitted tradition attributed to Ibn Abbas states their number is normally four and increases to eight at the Day of Resurrection. Al‑Suyuti (quoting Ibn al‑Mubarak) records at least one narration that includes the archangel Israfil among those counted as bearers, indicating some fluidity in angelic roles across reports. Beyond serving the Throne, the supplied materials do not ascribe combative, interactive, or human‑level functions.