Orders Angels Tribes Signs Seraphim Malchidiel Dan Aries Cherubim Asmodel Reuben Taurus Thrones Ambriel Judah Gemini Dominations Muriel Manasseh Cancer Powers Verchiel Asher Leo Virtues Hamaliel Simeon Virgo Principalities Zuriel Issachar Libra Archangels Barbiel Benjamin Scorpio Angels Adnachiel Naphtali Sagittarius Innocents Hanael Gad Capricornus Martyrs Gabriel Zabulun Aquarius Confessors Borichiel Ephraim Pisces In Rabbinical writings we are told that if a man fulfilled one of the commandments, one angel was bestowed upon him; if he fulfilled two commandments, he received two angels; if, however, he fulfilled all the commandments, many angels were given him. This was a literal construction of the text Ps. xci, 11: “For he shall give his _angels_ charge over thee.” These angels were believed to shield the believer from the attacks of evil spirits.[490] [Illustration: The medieval conception of the cosmos, the successive spheres of the planets, including the sun, and beyond these the crystalline heaven and the empyrean. In an outermost circle are named the great celestial powers, as recapitulated above the spheres. From a XIV century Italian MS. in the author’s library. ] The Mohammedan Atlas, the angel appointed by God to bear the earth on his shoulders, was given a rock of ruby to stand upon. Beneath this ruby-rock, were, successively a huge bull, an immense fish, a mass of water, and lastly darkness.[491] Thus the grand vision of “the face of the deep” over which hovered the Spirit of God, before the creative words were spoken, giving form to the earth, is not altogether lost sight of in this Mohammedan fancy. Luther was a firm believer in the existence of guardian angels, and he even goes so far as to assert that the angels assigned to men differed in rank and ability as did the men themselves. Of this he says: Just as among men, one is large and another small, and one is strong and another weak, so one angel is larger, stronger, and wiser than another. Therefore, a prince has a much larger and stronger angel, one who is also shrewder and wiser, than that of a count, and the angel of a count is larger and stronger than that of a common man. The higher the rank and the more important the vocation of a man, the larger and stronger is the angel who guards him and holds the Devil aloof.[492]