The Angels
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[35:1]
ALL PRAISE is due to God, Originator of the heavens and the earth, who causes the angels to be [His] message-bearers, endowed with wings, two, or three, or four.
[Unceasingly] He adds to His creation whatever He wills: for, verily, God has the power to will anything.

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* v.1 : The “wings” of the spiritual beings or forces comprised within the designation of angels are, obviously, a metaphor for the speed and power with which God’s revelations are conveyed to His prophets. Their multiplicity (“two, or three, or four”) is perhaps meant to stress the countless ways in which He causes His commands to materialize within the universe created by Him: an assumption which, to my mind, is supported by an authentic hadīth to the effect that on the night of his Ascension (see Appendix IV) the Prophet saw Gabriel “endowed with six hundred wings” (Bukhārī and Muslim, on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ūd).
*I.e., the process of creation is continuous, constantly expanding in scope, range, and variety.