The angel of death stands between heaven and earth, 
holding a poison-dripping sword. Identified with Satan, 
he is full of powers, a diligent reaper, an old 
fugitive and wanderer like Cain, a beggar, a pedlar, an 
Arab nomad, a skeleton, capering with sinners and 
misers in a jugglers' dance. 

But the nightmarish angel presents a different face to 
the one who has died before death, who has attained 
some measure of the apathea of a saint. 

We are told that Azrael, Death, appears to our spirit 
in a form determined by our beliefs, actions, and 
dispositions during life. He may even manifest 
invisibly so the man may die of a rose, a rheumatic 
pain, or of a rotting stench. 

When the soul sees Azrael, it falls in love, and its 
gaze is thus withdrawn from the body as if by a 
seduction. Great prophets and saints may even be 
politely invited by Death, who appears to them in 
corporeal form. Thus it was with Moses and with 
Mohammed. 

When the Persian poet Rumi lay on his deathbed, Azrael 
appeared as a beautiful youth and said, "I am come by 
divine command to enquire what commission the Master 
may have to entrust in you." 

In fact, a strange connection becomes apparent between 
mors and amor, love and death. The moment of extinction 
in the pleasure of love resembles that of death, and 
thus, that of the mystical. In mythic terms, Eros and 
Thanatos are almost twins, for in some cases Death 
appears as a lovely youth and Eros as a withered 
starveling. 

Both love and death are gateways, hence their eternal 
adolescence and their fixation in the midst of the rite 
of passage.