Heaven and Earth

Heaven is also a city, sometimes called the Priceless City, encircled by high stone walls with bronze gates. The celestial city is a temple of light, or a resplendent palace of magnificent vaulted arches, built of rainbow stone. Everything there is light and radiance, wonder; there is neither darkness nor cold. It is "the home and dwelling place of immortality."

The earth rests upon the horns of an ox; when he shakes his head, an earthquake occurs. According to other beliefs, the earth lies upon the ocean, encircled on all four sides by the body of the Leviathan fish. Its head has drawn so close to its tail that only a hand's span remains between them. The fish believes its own tail to be a foreign creature that forever plays about beneath its nose. So it endlessly pursues the tail, trying to seize and bite it — but cannot, for from the day of creation to the end of the world, the Leviathan does not grow so much as a hair's breadth. Should it ever succeed in catching its tail, the world would be utterly destroyed. And whenever it moves in pursuit of the tail, the earth trembles and an earthquake occurs. Upon Leviathan's head rests an enormous diamond that shines day and night. When the fish moves through the water, the diamond's rays flash and gleam in every corner of the world.