Lailah's identity arises from a rabbinic exegetical move in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 96a) which personifies the Hebrew word for night (laila/layla) into an angelic agent. In that context an unnamed nocturnal agent in a biblical episode is read as "the angel ... named lailah, Night." Later summaries and popular glossaries extend that identification into an angel associated with conception and pregnancy and, in some modern accounts, broader guardian roles.
No physical description is provided in the cited sources. The available materials do not supply traditional corporeal attributes or iconography for Lailah; popular glossaries that assign ranks do not document a canonical form in the provided excerpts.
In the sources gathered, Lailah is principally associated with the night and with involvement at moments of human conception, pregnancy, and delivery; this association derives from the Talmudic identification of the term "night" as an angelic agent and is reflected in modern summaries. Some later or popular accounts expand the role into a lifelong guardian function or assign angelic ranks (e.g., Dominion, Seraph), but those extensions are not attested in the primary Talmudic citation provided and appear in secondary/popular materials.
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- [1]Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 96a. Sanhedrin 96a (translation excerpt): “Johanan said: The angel who was appointed to aid Abraham was named lailah, Night.”academic
- [2]Lailah (angel) — Wikipedia. Summary noting Lailah as an angel in some Talmudic interpretations and later Jewish mythology, associated with night, conception and pregnancy; notes that the identification originates in Sanhedrin 96a.wiki
- [3]Lailah — Imaginova glossary. Popular glossary entry describing Lailah as the angel of conception, pregnancy, and delivery (used as a secondary/popular source in the notes).folk
- [4]Judaism StackExchange — note on leilya. Discussion noting that the Aramaic Targum uses 'leilya' as the translation of the Hebrew word 'layla' (night) and that the rabbinic identification personifies the term.other
- [5]Guardian angel — Wikipedia. Used in the notes to indicate that later summaries sometimes present Lailah as a guardian angel throughout life and at death (a secondary/popular extension noted in the research notes).wiki
- [6]Angels A to Z (Angelic glossaries / popular reference). Popular/encyclopedic source referenced in the notes that situates Lailah among other named angelic figures and provides variant spellings and expanded attributions in modern glossaries.folk