Stanislau Paulau suggested that Mikaʾel, who was able to speak broken Italian, may be a member of the Ethiopian community based in Santo Stefano degli Abissini in Rome.

[1] A 1534 letter from Philip Melanchthon to Wittenberg lawyer Benedict Pauli describes the meetings between Mikaʾel and Luther.

[3][4] Melanchthon wrote of the meetings: "For although the Oriental Church observes some deviant customs, [Abba Mikaʾel] judges that this difference neither annuls the unity of the Church nor contends with the faith, because Christ's kingdom is spiritual righteousness of heart, fear of God, and trust through Christ.

[4] Mikaʾel left Wittenberg with a formal letter of recommendation drafted by Melanchthon and signed by Luther.

[8] While the letter of recommendation enjoyed some circulation shortly after Melanchthon's death, the later works of Gottfried Schütze and Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette misinterpreted Mikaʾel to be a member of the Greek Church and identified him as a "Greek clergyman", therefore obscuring Mikaʾel's identity for much of history,[9] until his identity and ethnicity was corrected by the works of Ludwig Enders in 1906.