Why are angels always males?

[Belacqua]

The Bible is ambiguous about the appearance of angels. The Greek word "angelos" just means "messenger," and could refer to anyone delivering a message from God. A human being carrying a message could serve as an angel, even unwittingly, if he had such a message.

Later on the various creatures who exist in the hierarchy between people and God were categorized, most famously by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, into different types. Some looked more like people than others.

Since the Bible doesn't give clear descriptions of most angels, and Jews are notoriously opposed to visual representations, it posed a problem for people in Hellenistic and Roman culture who converted to Christianity and wanted pictures of angels. For the most part the artists simply used types of figures they already had. Pre-Christian and pagan psychopomps and genius figures served similar roles to angels in Hellenistic and Roman religions, so it was simplest to give Christian angels the same appearance.

https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/...AAABJiKOvK

Later, in the Renaissance, Cherubs (who are frightening high-level angels in scripture) were confused with Greek and Roman pictures of baby Eros or Erotes, giving rise to the strange picture of cute baby angels which we see in Raphael and on Valentine's Day cards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotes#/me...morini.JPG

I always thought that "angel" is a rank; in Islam Satan was with the angels even though he was a Jinn -then became a demon when he rebelled against God-; I think that gender simply doesn't fit that rank; i.e if a creature climbed to such rank, male/female doesn't fit their new existence anymore.

Yes, the meaning of the word changed.

At first it was just "messenger," of any type. But as time went on and the types and ranks got categorized, the word took on two meanings. 

So the nine levels of celestial beings are (from top to bottom) the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. Confusingly enough, this hierarchy is called the nine levels of angels, but the bottom rank is called just "angels." 

None of these has gender, because we get gender when we fall into materiality, and angels are pure mind with no matter. They have location but not extension, mass, weight, etc. 

This is all the Christian view of course -- I don't know anything about the Muslim version! I have seen lovely pictures of Iblis looking jealously at Adam and Eve, which I guess led him to rebel....? 

In this picture he's in the lower left corner with gray skin, making the Islamic art gesture for puzzlement or confusion -- index finger to lips. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iblis#/med...alnama.jpg

Of course all the Christian stuff I've named is not in the Bible. The hierarchies and characteristics of angels is all defined later, and I don't know how much of it is considered dogma for Catholics. Do you know how much of the Iblis story is in the Koran, officially? 

Also, can you tell me about Jinns? Are they always bad? I'm asking because daemons, called geniuses in Latin, were messenger spirits much like angels, but they could be either helpful or harmful. Socrates famously had a helpful daemon. But in English you can still express the idea of a mischievous, misleading daemon by saying "He has a genius for getting into trouble." That is, his genius -- guiding spirit -- leads him to get into fights in bars or something like that. Are Jinns like this?