ANGELS
While the fact that FF3 takes the names of actual demons and gives them to mostly unrelated monsters probably isn't that surprising, it's rather strange that some monsters are named after angels. But then, since FF3 also turned Silenus and Thor into monsters, it's not really surprising.
Abai --
Azrael --
Chafriel --
Haniel
There are a few possble origins for this monster's name.
According to the 16th century occultist Dr. John Dee, who claimed to be able to converse with angels, Abai is an angel, and his name is incorporated into Dee's "Enochian tablets". When you consider that FF3's abai is a recolour of Vassago - a monster named after a demon of occult lore - this seems a likely source, but it's actually pretty doubtful. The Enochian tablets are squares with seemingly random assortments of letters, and the names of the angels can only be extracted if you know the code - it's unlikely that Square would choose Abai, one of the least important angels, out of the 1024 encrypted names. Also, most of the angels' names consist of just four letters, and the code makes heavy use of acronyms - it's not really surprising that a monster with a four-letter name turns up in it.
Abai is also a name which is in use around Russia - the reference could be to Abai Geser, a Buryat folk hero - and the name of an ancient Greek town, home to an oracle of the sun god Apollo.
Azrael is the Islamic angel of death - although he also played a part in the creation of life, as he brought Allah the clay which was made into Adam. Because of his connotations of death, Azrael is sometimes considered to be a demon, so his appearence in FF3 as a monster isn't really that strange.
Haniel, whose name means "ship of God" or "grace of God" can be found in Medieval Kabbalistic belief (the angel of the Sephirah Netzach) and in Thomas Heywood's 1635 book Hierachy of the Blessed Angels, and is usually seen as an angel of love.ABAI
AZRAEL
HANIEL
