The first character we meet in Satanic Verses is Gibreel in the chapter title “The Angel Gibreel.” This sets him up to function like the angel Jibreel, or Gabriel, in Abrahamic religion. Of the pair of main characters, his backstory is explained first, and takes the least amount of time at only 21 pages. This is understandable as, compared to his co-protagonist Saladin’s life, his was quite easy. Most of his backstory chapter discusses his film career and various scandals he found himself involved in. In fact, his backstory only covers the past few years of his life. You could only really call it a backstory because it is accompanied by Saladin’s backstory, which goes incredibly in-depth. However, what’s odd is that, from what I have read, Gibreel takes a more active role in the story. He is the one who is confident as they fly out of the hijacked plane, and he is the one who has the dream sequence with Baal. It may be that, because Gibreel had a more successful and glamorous career, he is more embracing of the supernatural aspects of the story as opposed to Saladin, who takes a more active role during the hijacking events and, of course, has a longer backstory.