He dreamed of a large, healthy tree standing at the center of the earth. In the dream, a messenger came down from heaven, commanding the tree be cut down, and the stump bound in a band of iron and bronze. In what reads as a mixed metaphor, the messenger said the tree would no longer have the mind of a human, but that of a wild animal. A period of time specified as “seven times” would pass before the tree regained its rightful mind. Scholars continue to debate how long “seven times” was.