Sandalphon is one of the most extraordinary figures in Jewish angelology: a towering archangel of immense stature said to have once been a mortal man, the prophet Elijah, taken up to heaven and transformed into an angel. He is the angel of prayer, the weaver of the prayers of Israel into crowns for the divine glory, and the celestial twin of [archangel-metatron].
The Angel Who Was a Man
Jewish mystical tradition holds that two human beings were so righteous that they ascended bodily into heaven and were transfigured into great angels: Enoch became Metatron, and the prophet Elijah, swept up in a chariot of fire, became Sandalphon. This origin makes Sandalphon unique — an angel who knows mortal life from within, a bridge between the human and the celestial. The Talmud describes him as a being of such vast height that it would take a journey of five hundred years to traverse it, towering above his angelic fellows.
The Weaver of Prayers
Sandalphon’s great office is the gathering of prayer. He is said to stand behind the divine Chariot, receiving the prayers that rise from the faithful on earth, and to weave them into garlands and crowns that ascend of their own accord to rest upon the head of the Holy One. In this he is the intercessor who ensures that no sincere prayer is lost, but is gathered up and crowned with glory before the Throne. He is also named as the angel set over birdsong and, in some traditions, over the unborn, determining aspects of a child’s destiny.
Twin of Metatron
Sandalphon and Metatron are paired as the two transfigured humans, the highest of angels, often depicted as celestial brothers flanking the divine presence — Metatron the heavenly scribe and prince, Sandalphon the master of prayer and song. In the imagery of the Kabbalah, the two stand at the summit and the foundation of the angelic order. In Sandalphon, Jewish tradition gave heaven a most human face: an angel who had wept and prayed as a mortal, now eternally lifting the prayers of mortals to God.