55. I got to <the> region of vitality which was situated within the heart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before, and I left behind.
56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approaching with its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, together with the positions of the world.
57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state, the sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed <to> be dislocated from its place.
58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor mark the situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where it lay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could I know where they were taken.
59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting a sight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anew to view.
60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shining all at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting down the high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water.
61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire of conflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched with all the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of them save in the memory of men.
62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning embers on all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes all away.
63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forth in flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universe flushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the evening sky.
64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into a flame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving bee is closed up in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched and unscathed by the burning flame.