The Golden Dawn was in part an expression of Hermetic Qabalah, which was itself derived from Jewish mystical Kabbalah.

These consist of gematria where each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet have their own number and are added together in words to make metaphorical sympathy; aiq baqir, also called "Qabalah of the Nine Chambers", which converts any letter in a word to its radical equivalent, such as "A" (=1) to "I" (=10) or "Q" (=100), hence "AIQ" for the radical no.

It quotes much of the introduction to Mathers' Kabbalah Unveiled and also Crowley's own Qabalistic Dogma, an appendix to his Collected Works vol.

Liber 777 Vel Prolegoma Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicande, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae is designated a "Class B" document by Crowley.

The title refers to a lightning flash descending the diagrammatic worlds, the zig-zag pattern suggesting three diminishing 7s and the sum value of the Gematria of the paths.

An introduction to one edition by "Frater N∴" states that Crowley may have published it anonymously because it was taken from a Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn manuscript that was obligatory for initiates to memorise.

The Hebrew alphabet, the tarot cards and the astrological glyphs total 22-each and are given to the paths as a map of the magician's universe.