I looked up... and drew in my breath. An indescribably magnificent view suddenly opened up before me. 

Abraham made a wide, sweeping gesture.

"Here!" he announced. "Here are the kingdoms of the world, nation by nation. They are ours. You have conquered the mount and entered into their possession."⁴

"They are... ours?" I whispered, feeling faint. We stood on the edge of the high mountain. Its dome broke off suddenly into a steep wall of rock as smooth as glass and utterly inaccessible⁵. From the foot of this unexpected precipice up to the horizon the nations radiated out⁶, one after the other, kingdoms of unequalled beauty and glory, on an earth as flat as a table⁷. The mountain Abraham and I stood on was the sole elevation.

"Look!" Abraham directed my attention away from the nations to the foot of the mountain.

An innumerable multitude of people were pressing, shoving, and moving toward something. As far as I could see, people of every age and race were trying to climb this dome.

But how utterly irrational they were! One by one, men and women, young and old, all placed their feet into the same footprints⁸ I had just ascended!

Incredulous! Why did they not make other paths? How could such a multitude ascend on one track only? Were they crazy?

They continued to climb, one after another. Some, however, had simply quit and just sat down! 

This appeared even more irrational! They would never know how utterly glorious it was up here!

"Up here!" I shouted and waved to them. "Its fantastic!"

"No! No!" they called back. "It's too much for us! We can't make it. We'll be alright here."

"Tsk! Tsk!" I shook my head, amazed. This made no sense. "They have never even seen those kingdoms from here," I said to Abraham. "Don't they know all this glory⁹ waits for us on the other side of the mountain?¹⁰  Why do they stay down here?"

"They have heard of the glory,"¹¹  he answered sadly. "But they don't have the persevering strength¹², you see. Those propelled by hope¹³ are sure of what they've heard¹⁴ and know they'll reach the top. The hope of others dissipates and gives way to uncertainty, when they see nothing but this slope¹⁵. Notice, that it is mainly those who are holding hands even as I held your hands, who are making it to the top."¹⁶

"Were you not strengthened and encouraged¹⁷  when I held your hand?" he suddenly asked me.

"Oh yes," I nodded. " Because you made it, I knew I could, too."

"But, Father Abraham," I asked, wanting to satisfy my extreme curiosity. "What is this mountain all about? Why is it here?"

"This mountain is the obstacle placed into the path of life between the world and the promises of God,"¹⁸  he answered. "It represents an impassable barrier to the promises of G-d, yet it is the only way¹⁹. And there is no other means to conquer the mountain except by my footprints."²⁰

"Whosoever seeks another route, shall find none. But everyone who walks the path I have already carved, and perseveres to the top, will enter into G-d's promises²¹. Look at the glory and riches and the beauty of His promises."

He made a sudden, sweeping motion, and a sequence of mountains appeared in a vision before my eyes. It was always the same mountain, and yet different each time. One was called "First Promise;" another one "Faith;" still another one's name was "Covenant," and yet another's "Service." There was "Refuge," and "Inheritance," "Blessing and Curse," and "Life and Death." One was called "Moriah;" another "Golgotha" (Calvary); another "Salvation," and still another "Righteousness." There was "Mt. Zion," and "Holiness" mountain, and finally the "Mountain of G-d."

"You see, my child," Abraham said after the vision had ceased. "There is but one mountain in all of the earth²². To the world it presents an obstacle²³, but to those who seek after G-d's promises, it is the path of victory."

Looking deeply into my eyes, he grasped my hands firmly to emphasize his words. He said:

"I am Abraham," his sonorous voice rang again. "I have shown you how to climb this mount, called ‘Faith’. You have obeyed²⁴and followed in my path. See, the mount has nothing that would appeal to your senses and emotions. For the mystery of this mountain is ‘faith’. It is not by what you see, nor by what you hear or feel, that you enter into G-d's promises²⁵. Only through the pathway of faith, symbolized by my footprints, can you achieve what G-d has for you." 

Then he turned toward the kingdoms, and with wide outstretched arms firmly and loudly declared: "Behold, your inheritance!"²⁶

Then, I awoke²⁷.

That morning I read the entire Biblical account of Abraham. For the first time in my life I learned about “faith”. My lack of spiritual understanding, and my ignorance of G-d's truth as revealed in the Scriptures was so great that G-d graciously taught me by means of this vision. It caused me to search the Scriptures intensely for spiritual understanding. Nevertheless, the enigma of the eggshaped dome of a mountain called "faith" still remained an inexplicable puzzle. Thereupon Abraham appeared once more, in a second night vision which proved even more astounding than the first.