eagle like lion like all human like beings and all of figures. equally are feeling it is something that was imported from the babylonian iconography and integrated into christendom god is surrounded by groups of four figures seated on. his throne and that's why alongside the number three which symbolizes gaunt there is a number for an extension symbolizing his rule in all four worldly speeches and eras so i figure since that's also why the derivatives of three and four twelve and twenty four were also endowed with a holy systematic significance high systematically door to. the oldest mosaics of christian iconography out to be found in the sacred buildings of ravenna opposite a series of martyrs there's a series of holy virgins that individual expressions are not important but the series and the number. sixteen prophet stand above them which signifies twelve