And he answered me, saying, Do not hasten above the most Highest: for your haste is in vain to be above him, for you have much exceeded. Did not the souls also of the righteous ask question of these things in their chambers, saying, How long shall I hope on this fashion? when comes the fruit of the floor of our reward? And unto these things Uriel the archangel gave them answer, and said, Even when the number of seeds is filled in you: for he has weighed the world in the balance. By measure has he measured the times; and by number has he numbered the times; and he does not move nor stir them, until the said measure be fulfilled. Then answered I and said, O Yah-Who-Ah that bears rule, even we all are full of impiety. And for our sakes peradventure it is that the floors of the righteous are not filled, because of the sins of them that dwell upon the earth. So he answered me, and said, Go your way to a woman with child, and ask of her when she has fulfilled her nine months, if her womb may keep the birth any longer within her. Then said I, No, Lord, that can she not. And he said unto me, In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman: For like as a woman that travails makes haste to escape the necessity of the travail: even so do these places haste to deliver those things that are committed unto them. From the beginning, look, what you desire to see, it shall be showed you. Then answered I and said, If I have found favour in your sight, and if it be possible, and if I be meet therefore, Show me then whether there be more to come than is past, or more past than is to come. What is past I know, but what is for to come I know not. And he said unto me, Stand up upon the right side, and I shall expound the similitude unto you. So I stood, and saw, and, behold, an hot burning oven passed by before me: and it happened that when the flame was gone by I looked, and, behold, the smoke remained still. After this there passed by before me a watery cloud, and sent down much rain with a storm; and when the stormy rain was past, the drops remained still. Then said he unto me, Consider with yourself; as the rain is more than the drops, and as the fire is greater than the smoke; but the drops and the smoke remain behind: so the quantity which is past did more exceed. Then I prayed, and said, May I live, do you think, until that time? or what shall happen in those days? He answered me, and said, As for the tokens whereof you ask me, I may tell you of them in part: but as touching your life, I am not sent to show you; for I do not know it.
