Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
They took him from thence to the third heaven, where they showed him
Paradise, with all the trees of beautiful colors, and their fruits,
ripe and luscious, and all kinds of food which they produced, springing
up with delightful fragrance. In the midst of Paradise he saw the tree
of life, in that place in which God rests when He comes into Paradise.
This tree cannot be described for its excellence and sweet fragrance,
and it is beautiful, more than any created thing, and on all its sides
it is like gold and crimson in appearance, and transparent as fire, and
it covers everything. From its root in the garden there go forth four
streams, which pour out honey, milk, oil, and wine, and they go down to
the Paradise of Eden, that lies on the confines between the earthly
region of corruptibility and the heavenly region of incorruptibility,
and thence they go along the earth. He also saw the three hundred
angels who keep the garden, and with never-ceasing voices and blessed
singing they serve the Lord every day. The angels leading Enoch
explained to him that this place is prepared for the righteous, while
the terrible place prepared for the sinners is in the northern regions
of the third heaven. He saw there all sorts of tortures, and
impenetrable gloom, and there is no light there, but a gloomy fire is
always burning. And all that place has fire on all sides, and on all
sides cold and ice, thus it burns and freezes. And the angels, terrible
and without pity, carry savage weapons, and their torture is
unmerciful.
The angels took him then to the fourth heaven, and showed him all the
comings in and goings forth, and all the rays of the light of the sun
and the moon. He saw the fifteen myriads of angels who go out with the
sun, and attend him during the day, and the thousand angels who attend
him by night. Each angel has six wings, and they go before the chariot
of the sun, while one hundred angels keep the sun warm, and light it
up. He saw also the wonderful and strange creatures named phoenixes and
chalkidri, who attend the chariot of the sun, and go with him, bringing
heat and dew. They showed him also the six gates in the east of the
fourth heaven, by which the sun goes forth, and the six gates in the
west where he sets, and also the gates by which the moon goes out, and
those by which she enters. In the middle of the fourth heaven he saw an
armed host, serving the Lord with cymbals and organs and unceasing
voices.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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