God wanted to create a human being. The angels said no. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon, God first approached the company of Michael and said, "Let us make man in our image." The angels replied, "What is man that You should remember him?" God stretched out His little finger and destroyed every angel in the company. Only Michael survived.
He then turned to undefined's company with the same request. Same answer. Same result. An entire angelic host, obliterated.
The third company, led by an angel named Boel, watched what had happened to the others. Boel told his companions, "If we repeat what they said, He will destroy us too. Better to comply." They agreed. God rewarded Boel by renaming him Raphael, "because through your counsel you saved your entire host."
God then sent Gabriel to gather dust from the four corners of the earth. But the earth refused. "I am destined to become a curse through this man," the earth said. "If God Himself does not take the dust, no one else shall." So God personally reached down, scooped up the dust, and formed Adam from four colors: white for bones and sinews, black for intestines, red for blood, and green for skin.
Adam's creation took twelve hours. In the first hour God gathered the dust. By the fourth, He breathed a soul into the body. In the sixth hour, Adam named every animal. In the seventh, Eve was joined to him, built from a rib and flesh taken from his heart. By the tenth hour, Adam had already transgressed the command about the forbidden fruit. By the twelfth, he was expelled from Eden.
When Adam first stood, his height stretched from east to west. Every creature thought he was their creator and bowed before him. Adam corrected them: "Come, let us crown the One who actually made us."