The Vision of Creation

1 And He said to me: "Look now beneath your feet at the heavenly vaults and understand the creation foreshadowed in this expanse, the creatures that exist on it, and the age prepared according to it."⁠a 2 And I looked beneath the heavenly vault at my feet and saw the likeness of heaven and what was in it, 3 and then the earth and its fruits, and what moved on it and its living beings; and the power of its people, and the godlessness of their souls, and their righteous deeds [and the beginnings of their works], and the lower regions and the destruction in it, the Abyss and its torments. 4 I saw there the sea and its islands, and its monsters and its fish, and Leviathan and his domain, and his camping place, and his caves, and the world which lay on him,⁠b and his movements, and the destruction of the world because of him. 5 I saw there streams and the rising of their waters, and their winding courses. 6 And I saw there the Garden of Eden and its fruits,⁠c the source of the stream flowing from it, and its trees and their bloom, and those who behaved righteously. And I saw in it their food and happiness.⁠d 7 And I saw there a great crowd of men and women and children [half of them on the right side of the picture] and half of them on the left side of the picture.