One of the five principal elements necessary to make up a complete personality, the others being the ka, the ba, the name, and the shewet (shadow).

The akh is the aspect of the individual in which the blessed dead inhabited the underworld, the result of the successful reunion of the ba with its ka. The akh is an 'effective spirit' and endured for eternity. This union, however, could not be achieved unless the heart and the feather of Ma'at were in perfect balance when weighed on a scale before the great god - Wesir (Osiris) and his forty-two judges. The akh was often represented as a mummiform figure, but the hieroglyph was written in the sign of a crested ibis.

Once the akh was successfully created it became an intermediary between the divine and the living with godlike powers. Non-royal ancestors were worshipped in the home as akh iker ne Re, "Able Spirits of Re". Busts of the ancestor occupied wall niches and were offered food in order for them to intercede on the living's behalf to the Netjeru (gods). They were reckoned to have a special relationship with Re, the sun god, and to travel in the solar barque as he traveled to the land of the dead at night. Akh iker ne Re were sometimes portrayed as solar rays.