“Besides, the prophet said: I saw five mansions greater than any thing else, which spread their shade over earth and heaven.” He denotes here the great heaven, which in its interior incloses all the other heavens, and is the greatest of all spaces. Again, saying: “When I proceeded, I saw four seas, the waters of each being of a different color,” he implies an account of essentiality, corporeity, materiality, and exteriority; inasmuch as this account is generally perplexing, the idea of every one being conceived in a different way, and each way interpreted by every one. And what the prophet said: “I saw angels much occupied with beads and prayers and all taken up with the precious sentence, _There is no God but one God_:” this refers to pure spirits who are free from matters of desire, and spotless; and every man who is remote from the world, wise, pure, and disengaged from all ties, when he separates from the body, is transported by God Almighty to the place and mansion of angels, and invested with everlasting beatitude. And the prophet assimilated him with angels, because they are seats of purity and devotion; that is, remote from corruption and perdition, and from the disturbance of sensuality, intent upon avoiding anger, and raised to the dignity of angels, perpetually engaged in the exploration of secret knowledge; they likewise never look upon the nether world, because, the body being in conjunction with mean and noble spirits, when a person fixes his sight upon low stations, he becomes liable to feel the attaint of necessity, and to search for expediency among circumstances; but when he effects his separation from them, he attains the noble perfection of himself, he becomes beatified, and immersed in delight and tranquillity, in such a manner that he never throws a look upon the inferior world, because, this bodily form being taken off from him, he then, by increase of knowledge and comprehension, acquires dignity and nobleness. “Some are upon their knees, and some prostrate themselves.” Some are spiritual, some praisers of God, some bent before him, some holy, and some purified cherubim, conforming in customs, lords, and princes. “Still more: When I left this assembly, in my progess I arrived at a sea without borders; howsoever I strained my sight, I could not perceive any boundary or shore; and at this sea I saw a river, and an angel who was pouring the seawater into the river, and from thence the water ran to every place.” By “the sea,” he implies the first intelligence; and by “the river,” the first spirit. “Likewise: On the level of that sea, I perceived a great desert, greater than which I had never seen any space, so that, in spite of my endeavor, I found neither the beginning nor the end of it.” That is: I could not assign a limit to what was more extensive than any thing else, as the comprehension of a pure being belongs only to a perfect intelligence.