Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Groningen, where, in 1833, he received his doctorate.

After starting work as a doctor at the Buitengasthuis Hospital in Amsterdam, in 1835, he taught medicine at the clinical school in Rotterdam.

Along with Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda, Pieter Harting and Winand Staring, he was in the first commission to create a geological map of the Netherlands, which was published in 1852 by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke.

Miquel died in Utrecht at the age of 59 in 1871, after which he was succeeded as the director of the National Herbarium by Willem Frederik Reinier Suringar.

The former home of the director of the botanical gardens in the city center of Utrecht is called "Miquel's House".