Mystical systems
Ifrit
Direct answer
Ifrit: An ifrit is a powerful and cunning kind of jinn in Arabic and Islamic tradition, named once in the Quran and common in later folklore and in the Thousand and One Nights.
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At a glance
- Also called
- afrit, efreet
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Jinn, Demon, Daimon, Ghost
An ifrit is a powerful and cunning kind of jinn in Arabic and Islamic tradition, named once in the Quran and common in later folklore and in the Thousand and One Nights.
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What is an ifrit?
Ifrit, also spelled afrit or efreet, is an Arabic word for a strong, rebellious spirit. The Quran uses it once, in the story of Solomon: when the king asks who can bring him the throne of the Queen of Sheba, an ifrit of the jinn offers to fetch it before Solomon rises from his seat. The word there works almost as a description, a mighty one among the jinn.
Later tradition made the ifrit a class of its own, ranked among the most dangerous jinn. In stories ifrits are huge, quick to anger, and linked with fire, smoke, ruins and the places under the ground, yet they can be bound, bargained with and outwitted. They are not all unbelievers; like other jinn, an ifrit may be good or bad.
On the tree of the hidden arts: The spirit realm.
What sets Ifrit apart
Ifrit is a rank, not a species. The word seems first to have been an adjective for someone strong and sly, and the Quran applies it to one of the jinn as praise of his power. Storytellers then treated it as a noun. What marks an ifrit in the tales is force joined to craft: it lifts palaces and crosses the sky in a night, yet it can be tricked by a fisherman and shut in a vessel under the seal of Solomon.
- Arabic: ʿifrīt, plural ʿafārīt
- Scripture: Quran 27:39, an ifrit of the jinn before Solomon
- Hadith: an ifrit that tried to interrupt the Prophet's prayer, in al-Bukhari
- In story: the Thousand and One Nights, as in the Fisherman and the Jinni
- Egyptian usage: also the ghost of a dead person, recorded by Edward Lane, 1836
Often mistaken for something else: A shaytan is a devil, a tempter set against God; an ifrit is a mighty jinn that may be hostile or helpful and may even be a believer.
The story behind Ifrit
The Quranic verse is 27:39. A hadith in the collection of al-Bukhari tells of an ifrit of the jinn that tried to break the Prophet's prayer and was overpowered. The Thousand and One Nights is full of ifrits, among them the spirit in the tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni. Edward Lane, in An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), recorded that Egyptians also used the word for the ghost of a dead person.
Why Ifrit matters
The ifrit shows how a single word of scripture can grow, through commentary and story, into a whole rank of spirits.
How to read Ifrit
Readers meet the term in Quran commentary, in folklore of the Middle East and North Africa, and as a stock figure in fantasy fiction and games.
Ifrit in practice: an example
In the Nights a fisherman frees an ifrit from a sealed jar and saves his own life by coaxing it back inside.
Where readings of Ifrit go wrong
Rankings of jinn differ from author to author, and the fire demon of games is a modern simplification.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- ifrit meaning, afrit, efreet, ifrit jinn, what is an ifrit, ifrit in islam
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is an ifrit?
It is a strong and cunning type of jinn in Arabic and Islamic tradition. The Quran mentions an ifrit of the jinn in the story of Solomon, and later folklore treats ifrits as a powerful class of spirits.
Is an ifrit the same as a jinn?
An ifrit is a kind of jinn. All ifrits are jinn, but most jinn are not ifrits; the word marks out the especially powerful and often hostile ones.
