Thus it says explicitly: “And through the hand of the prophets I have used likenesses”. This means that God conceals the profundity of His thoughts within these prophetic images and metaphors. But the truth is that this is only how the prophets see them, and even this “seeing” is not like physical seeing, as will be discussed below. What the prophets see are spiritual phenomena that take the form of “clothing”, “ascent”, “descent” and the like.
However, this “seeing” is nothing but a prophetic vision made up of likenesses and images conveying the depth and breadth of the plan in the divine mind. We may conclude that Kabbalisitic teachings are not merely metaphorical. The phenomena we have mentioned, such as “ascent”, “descent”, “clothing” and the like, truly exist in the prophetic vision. However, the prophetic vision itself is only a likeness. The prophets have the special power of being able to see the vision and understand its meaning.