Abdalaa

(Demon, “King” in certain infernal catalogues; love-compulsion spirit in grimoires)

Abdalaa is a demonic name that appears in some late magical traditions and infernal catalogues, most notably the Liber de Angelis, where Abdalaa is described as holding the rank of king within the hierarchy of Hell. In these sources, the spirit is linked not to philosophical demonology or cosmology, but to a very specific—and morally troubling—category of operative magic: compulsion spells designed to force romantic attachment.

Identity and Rank

In the Liber de Angelis, Abdalaa is classified as a king, a title commonly assigned in demonic hierarchies to spirits believed to command “legions,” “minions,” or subordinate entities. Such ranks are a recurring feature in grimoire culture: spirits are organised like feudal courts or military chains of command, mirroring the medieval worldview where authority flowed through strict social order.

However, as with many names found in magical catalogues, the precise origin of Abdalaa is uncertain. It is not a universally attested demon across major classical demonologies, and it appears to belong to a more specialised tradition of spirit-lists—texts that often blend borrowed names, invented titles, and syncretic fragments from different languages and religious environments.

The Grimoire Context: Love Magic and Compulsion

Abdalaa is chiefly associated with a compulsion spell “guaranteed” to procure the love of a woman. The spell’s stated function is not attraction in the modern romantic sense, but coercion: the demon and his subordinate spirits are invoked and “sent” to the target, who is then described as being tormented until she accepts the magician.

This grim material reflects a stark reality of medieval and early modern magical literature:

• Many grimoires contain an abundance of “love spells”, often framed as urgent, transactional, and obsessed with control.
• These texts frequently treat desire as a problem to be solved through domination rather than mutual choice.
• The target (very often a woman) is depicted as an object to be obtained—an attitude consistent with the darker currents of certain magical traditions.

In modern terms, such operations are best understood as ritualised coercion, and they occupy a shadowy intersection of obsession, entitlement, and magical violence.

From the profusion of such spells in magickal texts, it would seem that practitioners of the black arts had a very difficult time finding a date in the Middle Ages.

This biting observation—while humorous—points to a broader psychological theme in grimoire magic: the magician as isolated figure, turning to spirits not only for power, but to remedy loneliness, rejection, or wounded pride. In some traditions, Abdalaa appears as a spirit weaponised for precisely that purpose.

Name Etymology and Suspicious Similarity

One of the most striking features of Abdalaa is the name itself. It is noted as suspiciously close to the Arabic name “Abdullah”, a very common theophoric name meaning “servant of God.” This creates an immediate tension:

• Abdullah is widely used in Islamic cultures as a reverent name.
• It is not generally associated with infernal beings.
• Therefore, Abdalaa may represent a corrupted, altered, or misunderstood borrowing, the result of a foreign sacred name being pulled into European magical frameworks.

This is not unusual in grimoire traditions. Medieval and early modern European magical texts often contain:

• garbled Hebrew and Arabic fragments
• angel names transformed into “spirits”
• sacred names repurposed as conjuration formulas
• foreign words stripped from their original religious context

Thus, Abdalaa may be less a “true demon-name” in any theological sense, and more a textual artefact—a name drifting through the occult underworld of manuscripts, altered with each copy.

Characteristics and Attributes

Although detailed descriptions vary by source, Abdalaa’s profile typically includes:

• Infernal rank: King
• Domain: coercive love magic; obsession; domination of desire
• Method: affliction/torment of a target until submission (per the grimoire claim)
• Retinue: subordinate spirits or “minions,” consistent with king-ranking entities

Symbolically, Abdalaa represents a specific archetype:
Desire as conquest. Love as forced compliance. The beloved as prisoner.

This makes Abdalaa less a romantic spirit and more a manifestation of predatory longing—a spirit-name attached to rituals that weaponise intimacy.

Occult Interpretation

In contemporary esoteric interpretation (especially psychological or archetypal approaches), Abdalaa can be read as:

• the demon of obsession and “must-have” desire
• the spirit of entitlement, where the ego refuses rejection
• a force that amplifies the shadow traits of jealousy, fixation, and control
• a ritual mirror for the magician’s own unresolved abandonment wounds

In this view, Abdalaa does not “bring love”—it intensifies craving until it becomes tyranny.

Ethical Note (Occult World Standard)

Any operation aimed at breaking another person’s will, overriding consent, or compelling romantic submission is fundamentally harmful—spiritually, psychologically, and karmically. Even in purely folkloric terms, traditions often warn that coercive love magic rebounds on the practitioner through:

• paranoia and instability
• obsessive attachment
• emotional collapse when control fails
• spiritual contamination and recurring nightmares
• energetic debt (“the price of the pact”)

Within an ethical occult framework, Abdalaa belongs to the category of spirits best approached only as study, not as practice.

See Also

• Demon Hierarchies
• Infernal Kings
• Love Magic (Historical)
• Obsession Spirits
• Grimoire Tradition
• Compulsion Spells
• Ethics of Magic / Consent in Ritual Work

SOURCE:

The Dictionary of Demons written by Michelle Belanger.