All that which was shown to the prophets, the mind saw, as is the case of the “archons of the cup” and the “archons of the thumbnails.” All depends on [one’s] thought… the Creator places thoughts within the visual imagination (mahshevet ha-re’iyah) and shows them to the prophet. Thus it is with respect to everything the prophets saw… the vision that appears to the person is not due to a physical vision (re’iyat ha-‘einayim), for even a blind man can see the angel of death.

Translated by Elliot Wolfson in Through a Speculum that Shines- Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism, Princeton- Princeton University Press, 1994.