Satan has three faces and a pair of bat-like wings affixed under each chin. As Satan beats his wings, he creates a cold wind that continues to freeze the ice surrounding him and the other sinners in the Ninth Circle. The winds he creates are felt throughout the other circles of Hell.

Medieval theologians of Western Europe described the underworld (“hell”, “hades”, “infernum”) as divided into four distinct parts: Hell of the Damned, Purgatory, Limbo of the Fathers or Patriarchs, and Limbo of the Infants.

In Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy, Malebolge (/mælˈboʊldʒ/) is the eighth circle of Hell. Roughly translated from Italian, Malebolge means “evil ditches”. Malebolge is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into ten concentric circular trenches or ditches.

Limbo, in Roman Catholic theology, the border place between heaven and hell where dwell those souls who, though not condemned to punishment, are deprived of the joy of eternal existence with God in heaven.

According to annihilationism, the damned ultimately cease to exist and so are not conscious. According to the free will view of hell, the purpose of hell is to respect the choice of the damned not to be with God in heaven.

Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक) is the Hindu equivalent of Hell, where sinners are tormented after death. It is also the abode of Yama, the god of Death. It is described as located in the south of the universe and beneath the earth. The stay in Svarga or Naraka is generally described as temporary.

The description of Jahannam as a place of blazing fire appears in almost every verse in the Quran describing hell. Jahannam is described as being located below heaven, having seven gates, each for a specific group or at least a different “portion” or “party” of sinners.

It is described as “God’s kindled fire, which reaches up to the hearts: it is closed in over them in long columns” (Quran 104:5-9). According to Quran, it is spread out above and below in layers, has black smoke, boiling water and poisonous hot wind. The most common word used for punishment is “Adhab”.

Jannah is described as an eternal dwelling (Q3:136), with its supreme felicity and greatest bliss being God’s good pleasure (Q9:72).

The Birmingham Quran Manuscript is currently believed to be the oldest Quran in the world. This manuscript consists of two leaves of parchment that are a fragment of an early Quranic manuscript dated between 568 AD – 645 AD.

It is kept in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. Origninally attributed to Uthman Ibn Affan (d. 656), but because of its illumination, it is now thought the manuscript could not date from the period (mid 7th century) when the copies of the Caliph Uthman were written.