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Depending on the translation, the angel called "Night" לַיְלָה, (Laylāh) is sometimes referred to as "he" and sometimes "she" - or in the case cited below simply "that angel." I understand that לַיְלָה itself is feminine, but I would like guidance about the correct interpretation of Niddah 16b:

As Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa interpreted: ...That angel that is appointed over conception is called: Night. And that angel takes the drop of semen from which a person will be formed and presents it before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and says before Him: Master of the Universe, what will be of this drop? Will the person fashioned from it be mighty or weak? Will he be clever or stupid? Will he be wealthy or poor?

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    Note Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 3, which describes this angel, switches its name to that of the future name of the soul (פְּלוֹנִי), and also describes using male/neuter gender: וְאַחַר כָּךְ חוֹזֵר הַמַּלְאָךְ ...
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Commented Sep 1 at 23:51
  • What does it mean "male or female angel"? Do they have some sort of a reproductory system? Anyway, confusing Hebrew genders was rather common with Mishnaic and Talmudic sages.
    – Al Berko
    Commented Sep 8 at 13:12
  • I ask because translations vary, as I pointed out. I suppose that they are similar to men (and women?) as they are often confused with them in the Torah... Even to the point of the men of Sodom want the "know" them carnally. Also I noticed that R. Adin Steinsaltz said in ref. to Zech. 5:9 "Perhaps these winged women were angels or some other type of celestial being; for they have wings shaped like the wings of a stork; and they lifted the ephah between the earth and the heavens."
    – Dan Fefferman
    Commented Sep 8 at 17:24

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