זוהר בראשית — דף קמט ע”ב

The Zohar explains that “the river Kevar” is a river on which the Divine Presence had long rested, one of the four rivers of Eden, and this is why it was revealed to Ezekiel. It then asks why Jacob saw the ladder only in a dream: at that time he was not yet married and Isaac was alive; later, when he returned to the land with the tribes, it is written “God appeared” and “in a vision of the night.” The dream comes through Gabriel, at the sixth degree from prophecy. The ladder is the rank on which the other ranks depend, the foundation of the world, and its head is linked to the phrase “the head of the bed.” The angels of God ascending and descending are the princes of the nations: they ascend when Israel sins and descend when Israel mends its deeds. Finally, the text cites Solomon, to whom God appeared in a dream before he had reached completeness.