"This wonderful and mysterious hieroglyph must be considered as a striking and expressive emblem of the guardian vigilance of providence, all-seeing and omniscient; while the number of wings exhibit to us direct symbols of that powerful, that all-pervading spirit which, while it darts through nature at a glance, is everywhere present to protect and defend us" (Dideron).
So attached were the Jews to this celestial symbol that when Solomon erected that stupendous temple which continued the glory and boast of the Hebrew nation for so many ages, we are told (1 Kings, vi. 29, viii. 6, 7), he carved all the walls of the house round about with the sculptured figures of the cherubim, and on each side of the ark was a cherub of gold plated upon olive wood fifteen feet high, with their faces to the light, their expanded wings embracing the whole space of the sacred enclosure, serving as a visible sign or symbol of God's immediate presence, whence the saying of David, "God sitteth between the cherubim" (Ps. xcix. 1). In this place God perpetually resided in the form of a bright cloud or shining luminous body, termed "shechinah," whence the divine oracles were audibly delivered.
Milton gives the following description of the Seraph Raphael:
"At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise He lights, and to his proper shape returns A seraph wing'd; six wings he wore to shade His lineaments divine; the pair that clad Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast With regal ornament: the middle pair Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold And colours dipped in heaven; the third, his feet Shadows from either heel with feather'd mail Sky tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance fill'd The circuit wide." _Paradise Lost_, Book v.
The _cherub_ is traditionally regarded as a celestial spirit which in the hierarchy is placed next in order to the seraphim. All the several descriptions which the Scripture gives us of cherubim differ from one another, as they are described in the shapes of men, eagles, oxen, lions, and in a composition of all these figures put together. The hieroglyphical representations in the embroidery upon the curtains of the tabernacle were called by Moses (Ex. xxvi. 1) "cherubim of cunning work" (Calmet).