This verse indicates the true meeting between the Prophet (saws) and the angel Jibril (pbuh). He (saws) saw him in reality, although Jibril (pbuh) is unseen and the nature of humans is incapable of seeing him. But Allah (swt) made the Prophet (saws) see Jibril (pbuh) so that he knows that he is in front of another power with an independent being and shape, once in the trip of Israa and Mi’raj at the Sidrat Al-Muntaha, and another time on the earth at the first revelation. Allah (swt) says:

  ﴾ وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ نَزْلَةً أُخْرَىٰ % عِندَ سِدْرَةِ الْمُنتَهَ ﴿

(And he certainly saw him in another descent % At the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary-) (An-Najm: 12-13)

Thus, Allah (swt) willed to show Jibril (pbuh) to the Prophet (saws) with his real image to prove to him (saws) that the revelation is not an illusion, or a self-talk, neither thoughts of obsessions.