זוהר בראשית — דף קל ע”ב

The Zohar describes the departure of souls from the body: the gatekeepers and the harmful beings seize the souls of the wicked and hand them over to Dumah and to Gehenna, and they wander for up to twelve months, while the souls of the righteous rise to their Eden. A long passage follows (Midrash ha-Ne’elam) that reads the section “The Life of Sarah” as the story of the soul and the body: the traveler’s prayer, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance” and the birth of Seth, the soul’s ascent at night, the four elements of the body, “Abraham came to mourn for Sarah,” the angel Dumah in charge of the cemeteries, the drops of Eden and the prophets, and then Metatron, Abraham’s servant, who seeks a wife for the son: the body, rebuilt for the resurrection of the dead.