Invisibility
A power, one of the traits figures share. All traits.
Utility
8 figures
He possesses a cloak or cap of invisibility, a recurring attribute in the same textual tradition, and his rule over the hoard makes him a gatekeeper figure standing between the heroic world above and the wealth, and danger, that lies beneath it. In the Nibelungenlied, Alberich is overcome by Siegfried, who wins both the invisibility cloak and mastery of the hoard from him by force, after which Alberich is bound to serve the new possessor of the treasure rather than being destroyed outright.
The red cap itself is treated as the source of his power, granting invisibility or the ability to appear and disappear at will, and in some tellings whoever manages to steal it can compel the Saci to do their bidding or can use it themselves for luck.
Their attested traits are narrower: invisibility to ordinary human sight, an affinity for and kinship with dogs, and a diminished, subordinate status within jinn society.
They are described as occupying an intermediate order of creation: like angels they can fly, see without being seen, and know something of what is to come, but like humans they eat, drink, reproduce, and eventually die.
Accounts describe Pretas as invisible to ordinary human sight, wandering through deserts, wastelands, and the margins of the human world, or hovering unseen near the living in search of scraps, discarded offerings, and funerary food.
Some accounts describe it as capable of shapeshifting into an animal, becoming invisible, or growing stronger, younger, and more vigorous with each victim
They can make themselves invisible and pass through rock and wall.
The hatif is a being of Arabic tradition defined entirely by one sensory fact: it is heard and never seen.