וַיְהִ֣י ׀ בִּשְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֗ה בָּֽרְבִיעִי֙ בַּחֲמִשָּׁ֣ה לַחֹ֔דֶשׁ וַאֲנִ֥י בְתֽוֹךְ־הַגּוֹלָ֖ה עַל־נְהַר־כְּבָ֑ר נִפְתְּחוּ֙ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וָאֶרְאֶ֖ה מַרְא֥וֹת אֱלֹהִֽים׃
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah
The matters concerning which a prophet is informed by vision of prophecy, are imparted to him allegorically, but the interpretation thereof is engraved upon his heart simultaneously with the vision and he knows what it means, as the vision of the ladder which Jacob our father saw: "The angels of God were ascending and descending upon it" (Gen. 28.12); which was a parable, the interpretation of which is the rise and fall of kingdoms, or as the Living Creatures which Ezekiel saw (Ezek. 1. 1–27), or the Seething Pot and the Almond Rod which Jeremiah saw (Jer. 1.12–13), or the Scroll of Parchment which Ezekiel saw (Ezek. 2.9), or the Measure which Zechariah saw (Zech. 2.5). And so with the rest of the prophets; some of them relate the parable and its interpretation as these; others relate the interpretation alone; and still others relate the parable only without the interpretation, as parts of the prophecies of Ezekiel and Zechariah, but all of them are prophesying in parables and metaphors.