Hekhalot literature (sometimes transliterated as Heichalot), from the Hebrew word for "Palaces," relates to visions of entering heaven alive. The genre overlaps with Merkabah mysticism, also called "Chariot literature", which concerns Ezekiel's vision of the throne-chariot, so the two are sometimes referred to as the "Books of the Palaces and the Chariot" (Hebrew: ספרות ההיכלות והמרכבה). Hekhalot literature is a genre of Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts produced sometime between late antiquity (some believe from Talmudic times or earlier) to the Early Middle Ages.
Many motifs of later Kabbalah are based on the Hekhalot texts, and Hekhalot literature itself is based upon earlier sources, including traditions about the heavenly ascents of Enoch found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Pseudepigrapha. Hekhalot itself has many pseudepigraphic texts.
