The Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai is a Jewish apocalypse, which presents itself as a record of the divine visions of the 2nd-century rabbi, Simon ben Yohai. Scholarly opinion about the date of its composition is divided. Some say that it must date from the time of the crusades, others that it was composed in the mid-8th century.
The visions described in the secrets portrays the Ishmaelites being led by a violent saviour of the Jews from the hegemony of the Byzantine Empire. It describes the events and rulers of the eight-century Umayyad Empire, as well as eight-century battles between the Byzantines (known in the text as the Kenites or the Kingdom of Edom) and the Umayyads (known in it as the Kingdom of Ishmael). It also seems, in a later section, quite clearly to describe the Crusades.
