Maimonides identifies the angels of the Abrahamic tradition with the Aristotelean Intelligences.

Aristotle’s theory is that the Intelligences are intermediate beings between the Prime Cause and existing things, and that they effect the motion of the spheres, on which motion the existence of all things depends. This is also the view we meet with in all parts of Scripture: every act of God is described as being performed by angels.

‘Angels’ are the name given to that immaterial entity which forms the intermediary between God and the material world.

God, as it were, “contemplates the world of ideals, and thus produces the existing beings”.

This ‘contemplation’ is what is meant when Scripture appears to refer to God ‘confering with the angels’; after all, God could not actually be in need of advice or help from beings whom he has himself created. Maimonides explains that there is a ‘simplistic’ way to understand the nature of angels (which one is tempted toward if a purely literal understanding of Biblical terms is pusrsued) and a more philosophical way.

Say to a person who is believed to belong to the wise men of Israel that the Almighty sends His angel to enter the womb of a woman and to form there the fœtus, he will be satisfied with the account; he will believe it, and even find in it a description of the greatness of God’s might and wisdom; although he believes that the angel consists of burning fire, and is as big as a third part of the Universe, yet he considers it possible as a divine miracle. But tell him that God gave the seed a formative power which produces and shapes the limbs, and that this power is called “angel,” or that all forms are the result of the influence of the Active Intellect, and that the latter is the angel, the Prince of the world, frequently mentioned by our Sages, and he will turn away; because he cannot comprehend the true greatness and power of creating forces that act in a body without being perceived by our senses.

Thus, the imperceptible, immaterial ‘forces’ which reside in certain bodies — in the above example, the ‘force’ that resides in human gametes, endowing their combined product with life, causing it to multiply and form into the shape of a human — are identical to what the Abrahamic religions mean by ‘angels’. Clearly, for Maimonides, the description of angels as ‘made from fire (or light)’ and ‘as big as a third of the universe’ are simply figurative expressions that are meant to induce awe, not actual descriptions of the angels.

Maimonides clarifies in GP II.7 that we should not think of the ‘forces’ associated with angels to be the ordinary forces of nature (القوى الجسمانية هي طبيعية); the angels have ‘free will’ (albeit of a different kind than we have) and consciously act; the motion of earth downward or of fire upward, however, is not a conscious force and simply follows from the laws of nature.