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The angel of death reflects man’s ambivalent nature toward death, as death is very difficult for many of us to cope with. The angel of death, or grim reaper as he is sometimes called, allows us to embody the concept of death into a tangible creature. The idea of the angel of death is thousands of years old. The angel of death is or has been identified with Satan, and it is said that when Eve touched the tree of knowledge, she perceived the angel of death, and thought: "Now I shall die, and God will create another wife for Adam."  - allaboutspirituality.org

Various religions and cultures give regard to an Angel Of Death:

• Michael, Gabriel, Sammael, and Sariel have all been regarded as Angels of Death in Judeo-Christian lore.
• Azrael is the angel of death is in Muslim and Islamic theology and ancient Arabic lore.
• Fourteen Angels of Death appear in rabbinical lore: Yetzerhara, Adriel, Yehudiam, Abaddon, Sammael, Azrael, Metatron, Gabriel, Mashhit, Hemah, Malach ha-mavet, Kafziel, Kesef, and Leviathan.
• In Zoroastrianism, the angel of death is Mairya.
• Mot was the angel in Babylon and in Falasha lore the angel is Suriel.
• In Hinduism, Yama is the god of death.

The concept of the Angel of Death appears to be most fully developed in rabbinical Judaism. The malakh he-mavet served as death emissaries under the direct command of God. These destroying angels gradually developed into demonic figures in postbiblical literature. An “angel” could develop into a demonic figure through its own initiative. In the Talmud, the Angel of Death is Satan. Maimonides quotes with much approval a Talmudic saying  that Satan, the evil inclination, and the Angel of Death are one and the same.

According to Angels A-Z: The many folklore tales associated with the Angel of Death fall into roughly three categories. In summary:

1. Tales of horror and magic where the stubborn Angel of Death serves as an anti-hero like the vampire Dracula.
2. An imbecilic being who can be defeated by human deception.
3. A benevolent being who can spare life based on compassion.

In some theories, the Angel of Death is neutral being neither good nor evil rather a balancer of the cosmos.

The following tale, The Town that Had Faith in God was recorded by David Alkayam from Rafael Uhna (born in Morocco) and transposed by Prof. Noy. In this tale, the Angel of Death is in fact neither grotesque, cruel nor compassionate. He is functioning as a servant of God, fulfilling His will, more along the lines of the earlier conception of angel as messenger.

THE TOWN THAT HAD FAITH IN GOD
or: MEIR AND THE ANGEL OF DEATH — A FOLKTALE

This is a story of a town whose inhabitants were pious and had faith in God. Not one of them used to save, not even a penny, because they said, "We must eat and drink today, and as for tomorrow, we will trust in God." Therefore there was not a rich man among them.

One of the inhabitants, named Meir, was a watchman. He carried out his work diligently and wholeheartedly. But he had an evil wife, and she did not trust in God. Day and night she used to nag her husband, "Let us save money for our old age." But Meir always answered, "I trust in God, so we should not be afraid."

The woman was barren, and since they had no children, she was very concerned about their old age. "Who will sustain us tomorrow?"

"Confidence in God's power is a great thing," her husband used to say. "So do not fear."

The Almighty, blessed be he, looked on and said to the Angel of Death, "Go and fetch the soul of Meir from the town of my faithful ones, because he no longer trusts in me."

When Meir returned from work, the Angel of Death awaited him, disguised as a porter and carrying two sacks of flour. He said to Meir, "A rich man sent me with flour for the inhabitants of this town; so you distribute it, but forego your own portion:"

Meir did as he was bidden. He wept from house to house with the flour. However, the inhabitants refused to accept it saying, "Today we have food, and as for tomorrow, we trust in God."

Meir returned to the porter and related all that had happened. The porter disclosed the truth: that he was the Angel of Death and had come to take away Meir's soul because he no longer had faith in God. Meir pleaded with the angel, "Promise not to take away my soul until I have prayed the Shema prayer: `Hear, O Israel."'

The Angel of Death agreed and said, "I shall be damned if I take your soul before you have prayed the `Hear, O Israel."'

Meir began the prayer but interrupted it and said, "I shall be damned if I ever complete this prayer." The angel realized that Meir had deceived him; whereupon he disappeared.

Meir related to his wife everything that had happened. She said, "Come, let us escape from the Angel of Death to another town." And so they did.

After some time the Angel of Death disguised himself as a rich man. He went to the same town and asked if he could be a guest in Meir's home. The town notables informed him, "This Jew, Meir, is a poor fellow. There are many benevolent and rich people who would like to entertain you. Would you not prefer their hospitality?"

However, the guest would agree to stay with no one else but Meir. The couple was very pleased with the guest, who did not spare money on their account.

Whenever Meir prayed, the rich man listened to him. He noticed that every time Meir reached the prayer "Hear, O Israel," he used to skip the end, and never once did he complete it. So it went on day by day.

One morning Meir's wife entered the rich man's room to awaken him, as was her daily custom. Imagine her shock when she saw that he was dying. Hastily she went to call her husband, "Come quickly to recite `Hear, O Israel' over the dying man. Then we shall bury our guest in secret, and all his wealth will remain with us." At first Meir refused to fulfill his wife's request, but at last he gave in to her pleading and nagging.

Meir finished the shema prayer, and the Angel of Death jumped out of his bed and seized his soul. - http://http://jhom.com/topics/angels/death_folk.htm