[1] The enigmatic postexilic biblical leader receives a revelatory vision outlining personalities and events associated with the restoration of Israel, the End of Days,[4] and the establishment of the Third Temple.
[4] The Zohar is cognizant of the legend of Hephzibah,[7] whom the apocalypse first names as the mother of the Davidic Messiah and a female warrior credited with killing multiple evil kings.
[8] Saadia Gaon (892–942) and Hai ben Sherira (939–1038), both heads of the Talmudic academies of Babylonia, probably knew the book but never mention it by name.
[4] It was reprinted again along with the Sefer Malkiel in Vilna in 1819, and again by Adolph Jellinek in his Bet Ha-Midrasch (1853–77) and S. A. Wertheimer in his Leqet Midrashim (Jerusalem, 1903).
[4] Because the book gave an unequivocal date (1058 AD) for the return of the Messiah, it exerted great influence upon contemporary Messianic thought.
[5] Set after Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem,[2] the book begins with Zerubbabel, whose name was associated with the first restoration, receiving a vision after praying for "knowledge of the form of the eternal house.
"[1] In the vision he is transported by the angel Metatron to Ninevah, the "city of blood" representing Rome[5] by which the author likely means Byzantium.