2163. And lie down under the tree. That this signifies near to the perception of His state in which He then was, is evident from the signification of a "tree," as being perception (see n. 103); bearing which in mind the series of things shows that the above is the real sense of the words. That "trees" signified perceptions, originated in the fact that the celestial man was compared and likened to Paradise, or the garden in Eden; from which the perceptions of celestial things with him were likened to the trees therein.