After this the angels prayed to the Lord, and took the newcomers from the East to the South, and from there to the West; and they said, 'Here you will see the abomination of desolation foretold by the Lord through Daniel' (Matt. xxiv 19); and they showed a black cloud stretching from the limit of the East to the end of the West, and making the South and North on either side very dark. At the sight of the cloud the new spirits were terrified. They asked what was that great, grim cloud and darkness, and where it had come from. The angels replied, 'There are satanic spirits, who have gathered together in bands, and by magic arts, abuses of correspondences and fantasies formed for themselves as it were heavens by occupying hills, and building upon them eminences and towers, like those in the valley of Shinar (Gen. xi 1 following), so as to construct for themselves a way up to the heavens where the angels live, with the intention of casting them down. Because they are high above this earth, they appear as it were in an expanse, and this expanse as a cloud. 'Lift up your eyes', they said, 'and look further.' And they saw a great number of spirits, and heard from there unspeakable cries interspersed with obscenities, and sounds like those of revellers in brothels. The angels said, 'These are those who are meant by the dragon and his two beasts in the Revelation (Chapters xii and xiii), those meant by the harlot sitting upon many waters and on the scarlet beast (Chapter xvii). They are all from the Christian world.