Mal’akh, the dark, tattooed, shadowy figure, is certainly the equal of Langdon’s past nemeses, as cold-blooded as Hassassin in Angels & Demons and Silas in The Da Vinci Code. He is a man of many names and many faces, a master of deception, a conjuror who will come, as does the novel, full circle in the course of the evening. We first encounter “The one who called himself Mal’akh” (10). This is an assumed name that comes from 
(mal’ach/mal’akh), the Hebrew word for “angel” and sometimes “messenger.” Hassasin in Angels & Demons will refer to himself as “Malak al-haq—the Angel of Truth.” But this figure is a fallen angel, a demon, the Moloch of Paradise Lost and the Book of Leviticus. The transformation of names by Mal’akh is graphically depicted on his tattooed body, which is supposed to reflect the hidden, inner truth. But when his body is exposed to the light, the truth is visible to all. As one mortal man had shouted: “Good God, you are a demon” (12). In public, Mal’akh masquerades as Dr. Christopher Abaddon. The two names are an ironic combination of Christopher the “Christ bearer” and the Abaddon of St. John’s Revelations 9:11: “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon.” The Book of Revelations is more commonly known as The Apocalypse, often interpreted as the ending of the world, but from the Greek word meaning “lifting of the veil.” Mal’akh’s oft-repeated refrain “The secret is how to die” echoes Revelations 9:6: “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
The demon also calls himself Anthony Jelbart, the secretary of Peter Solomon, on the phone to Langdon. Mal’akh had also lived for a time under the alias of Andros Dareios, which he explains as “Andros meaning ‘warrior,’ and Dareios meaning ‘wealthy.’” (223). In truth, all of these are assumed identities for Zachary Solomon, the prodigal son of Peter. In the New Testament, Zachary was the father of John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, His messenger, who eventually had his head chopped off. In the Old Testament of the Bible there is the closely related Zechariah, the Hebrew name meaning “Yahweh had remembered.” The name also points to the Book of Zechariah 6 and 7, which introduce the concept of the Four Horsemen, foreshadowing the Apocalypse.
The Temple Room in Washington, D.C.
It almost appears as if Zachary has risen from the dead, for during most of the novel he is presumed to have died. He has actually endured two near deaths, the first in prison and the second at the Solomon household robbery attempt. He appears for the third time to reclaim the secret pyramid he had rejected as his birthright on his eighteenth birthday. A profligate life had landed him in a Turkish jail, where his father, Peter, apparently sacrifices him to teach him a lesson. In a transformative act Zachary will become a new man (andros). He pursues a hedonistic existence, but it is replaced by an urge to gain not only wealth, but wisdom too. His thwarted attempt to steal the Masonic Pyramid results in his killing his grandmother, and then being wounded by her and by his own father. He begins his own scholarly search for meaning, not unlike Manly P. Hall, the chronicler of the Secret Mysteries. He returns to Washington, believing the promise of the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite of Freemasons that “all will be revealed.” When the degree is conferred without the requisite wisdom, Mal’akh plots to extract the secret from his father and transform himself. He also intends to destroy the work of his aunt, Katherine. Mal’akh seeks not light, however, but rather to plunge the world into darkness, “to obscure the light” (54). His study had brought him to emulate the black magic of Aleister Crowley, known to many a century ago as the “wickedest man in the world.” Through his fasting and satanic ritualistic preparation, Mal’akh attempts to replicate in diabolical fashion the story of Abraham and Isaac, the father who was asked to sacrifice his own son. This is known as the Akedah in the Book of Genesis 22. Mal’akh/Zachary will be frustrated to the end. He will not die at his father’s hand, but he will nevertheless be sacrificed upon the altar of the House of the Temple. There in the Temple Room, outlined in a circle, like the bare circle upon his head, he forms a human circumpunct, symbolizing the one God.
THE CONFESSIONS BY ALEISTER CROWLEY
www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/chapter1.html