The Merkavah — The Divine Chariot
The earliest visionary tradition in Jewish mysticism grew out of a single prophetic chapter describing a wheeled, fire-wreathed throne seen in a storm, centuries before the word "Kabbalah" existed.
Ezekiel chapter 1 recounts the prophet's vision by the Chebar canal: a stormy wind, a vast cloud with fire, and within it four living creatures each with four faces and four wings, accompanying wheels described as a wheel within a wheel, all supporting a throne with the appearance of the glory of the LORD above it. This chapter became the textual anchor for an entire school of early Jewish mysticism known as Ma'aseh Merkavah, the Account of the Chariot, which the Mishnah restricts from public teaching because of its perceived danger and depth. Centuries before the classical Kabbalah of Provence and Spain, circles of visionaries used Ezekiel's imagery as the map for meditative ascent toward the divine throne, producing the Hekhalot literature that describes that ascent in detail. The Merkavah vision is therefore not one symbol among many in Jewish mysticism but its documented point of origin.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.
Book of Ezekiel