Sabbatai, accompanied in 1664 by a retinue of believers and assured of financial backing, triumphantly returns to Jerusalem.

Here, a twenty-year-old student known as Nathan of Gaza assumes the role of a modern Elijah, in his traditional role of forerunner of the messiah.

Nathan ecstatically prophesies the imminent restoration of Israel and world salvation through the bloodless victory of Sabbatai, riding on a lion with a seven-headed dragon in his jaws.

In accordance with millenarian belief, he cites 1666 as the apocalyptic year.