Sefer ha-Edut · ספר העדות

A commentary on Sefer Edut — by its own account the fourth book of the commentary and the third of the composition, after Sefer ha-Yashar and Sefer ha-Hayyim. Its opening tells that Raziel, coming to Rome when the Pope had ordered him burned should he come to speak with him, secluded himself, saw visions and composed the book then, calling it Sefer Edut — a testimony between himself and God, he having given his soul to death for love of His commandment, and a testimony about God, who saved him from the hand of his enemies. The commentary says that most of the visions Raziel saw are built on the Explicit Name and on the renewal of its revelation in his days; it expounds them by the hidden way, explains the particulars of the parables only where necessary, and closes: "I have abridged for you the secrets of Sefer Edut as far as I was able." It also discloses that Raziel set two hidden verses in the initial letters of the verses, with a reversed alphabet sealed with the seal of emet and the Name of forty-two letters, and that "in a vision" is Abraham, "and that is the name of Raziel."