'What do you mean?' they answered, 'there is no garden here. We can see only one tree, with what look like golden fruits on its branches and its top, and what look like leaves of silver, their edges decorated with emeralds; and under the tree there are children with their nurses.'

To this the angel replied with deep feeling in his voice: 'This tree is in the middle of the garden, and we call it the tree of our heaven; some call it the tree of life. But go closer and your eyes will be opened, and you will see the garden.' They did so, and their eyes were opened, and they saw trees teeming with tasty fruits, with grape-vines trained round them; and their tops with fruit on them nodded towards the tree of life in the middle.

[2] These trees were planted in an unbroken row, extending outward and running in constant circles or rings, like a never-ending spiral. It was a perfect spiral of trees, in which one species followed another arranged in order of the nobility of their fruits. There was a considerable gap between the beginning of the spiral and the tree in the middle, and this gap sparkled with gleams of light, which made the trees of the ring shine with a splendour running in graduated steps from the first to the last. The first trees were the most outstanding of all, luxuriant with the finest fruits; these were called trees of paradise, something never seen before because they do not, nor can they, exist on earth in the natural world. These were followed by trees that yield oil, and these by trees that yield wine. After these came trees with a fragrant scent, and finally trees with wood useful for making things. Here and there in this spiral or ring of trees were seats shaped out of tree-shoots brought and woven together from behind, enriched and embellished with their fruits. There were gates in this unbroken circle of trees, leading to flower gardens, and these leading to lawns, divided by plots and beds.

[3] When the angel's companions saw these they cried: 'Here is heaven made visible! Whichever way we turn our gaze, there is an impression made on us of heavenly paradise, beyond description.' The angel was delighted to hear this, and said: 'All the gardens in our heaven are visible forms or models representing the varied blessedness of heaven in their origins. It was because the varied blessedness flowing in uplifted your minds that you cried: "Here is heaven made visible!" Those, however, who do not receive that inflow look upon these paradises as no more than woodland. It is all those who have a love for performing services who receive that inflow. Those who do not receive it have a love for glory, which is not for the use it is.' Afterwards he set forth and instructed them what was the representation and meaning of each detail in that garden.