Then said Rabbi Ishmael: “All the companions made a parable of this scheme [for those who descend to the Merkhaba: It is like] unto a man who hath a ladder in his house, [and] who was going up and down on it, and there is no creature that preventeth him.” Blessed be thou, O Lord, who art wise in secrets and master of hidden things. Amen. Amen....
Said Rabbi Ishmael: Rabban Simon ben Gamliel was angry with me. He said to me, “Almost had Zahaphtariai rebuked us and shucked {us} as husks of corn. Why didst thou, by criminal carelessness, sin against us? Dost thou, perhaps, think that Jonathan ben Uzziel is a man of small account in Israel? If he simply descended and came and stood at the entrance of the seventh palace [without any seal, what would happen to him? He could not blink an eye before the door-keepers of the seventh palace had utterly exterminated him. And yet you have said nothing about the necessary seals nor the names of the angels to whom they must be shown.]