The name "Satan" appears only sporadically in the Old Testament, and when it does appear, his adversarial role often appears to be as more against humans than against God. He plays a major role in the book of Job? as an accuser of humanity before God. Elsewhere in the Old Testament he is rarely mentioned. One curious reference occurs in the book of [I Chronicles]?, which reports that Satan moved [King David]? to take a census; a parallel passage in [II Samuel]? reports that it was God who was responsible.
Satan figures much more prominently in the New Testament and in Christian theology. In some Christian theologies (as reflected in Milton?'s [Paradise Lost]?), Satan is believed to have been an archangel? named Lucifer who turned against God before the creation of man. According to this view, he waged war against God, his creator, and was banished from Heaven because of this. The Judeo-Christian creation story found in the book of Genesis reports that a serpent tempted Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit of the [Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil]?; many theologies interpret this serpent to be Satan, although he was not identified as such by name.
According to most Christian eschatology, Satan will wage a final war against Jesus, before being cast into Hell for all eternity.
In Islam, Satan is known as Iblis?. Iblis was the chief of the angels, until he disobeyed Allah by refusing to prostrate himself before Adam.
In various Gnostic sects, Satan was praised as the giver of knowledge, sometimes with references to his name of Lucifer or "the light-bringer". Some claimed that the being imagined as God by Christians and Jews was in fact Satan, as a world as imperfect as ours could not be created by a perfect God.
Satan is worshipped by (so-called) satanists; they disagree however on what Satan is: some claim he is a real being while others believe he is a mere symbol? for the animal desires of humans.
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