“The two men, Gibreelsaladin Farishtachamcha, condemned to this endless but also ending angelicdevilish fall, did not become aware of the moment at which the processes of their transmutation began.”

The moment Saladin and Gibreel are thrown from the airplane binds their lives together in ways they cannot yet comprehend. To illustrate this seemingly unbreakable bond, the narrative of the novel blurs together the two characters until they have a single name, a portmanteau of their individual identities. Saladin and Gibreel are fused together into the same character, and their lives—from this moment on—will be echoes, reflections, and reactions to one another. 

“Why did he leave? Because of her, the challenge of her, the newness, the fierceness of the two of them together, the inexorability of an impossible thing that was insisting on its right to become.”

Gibreel is perpetually unsure what he wants from his life, and his brief relationship with Alleluia is a challenge. He revels the "challenge of her" (21), learning from Alleluia the satisfaction of taking on an impossible challenge and triumphing. The triumph of Gibreel's love for Alleluia is his own personal Everest. 

“England was a peculiar-tasting smoked fish full of spikes and bones, and nobody would ever tell him how to eat it.”

Saladin is fiercely independent and completely dedicated to doing everything for himself. He hates the difficult-to-eat English food but struggles through the boney, peculiar kipper as a demonstration of his strength. By teaching himself how to eat the fish without help, he believes that he is exerting his agency in a country that is hostile to his presence. The experience of eating the kipper—much like many of his experiences in England—is miserable, but he does it anyway, convincing himself that this is what he wants.