Here is a passage from an essay which quotes two fragments of the Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and the Earth:
In the medieval Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and the Earth, we find God sending the archangel Michael into Sheol (hell) to rescue a man taken there by demons. He searched three times, each time bringing out some of the wicked before finding the man he was seeking.
And the number of those [souls] who through that man escaped from Sheol was five hundred and forty-six thousand. And some of these were heathen. And the angels said, "this thing is terrifying."
And our Lord saith in the Gospel, "He who believeth and who is baptized shall be saved, but he who believeth not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16). How then was it possible for these [souls] to escape? And thee, O son of man, hast thou heard that some of the heathen have been saved? [No doubt thou hast], but they did not enter the Garden (Paradise) without being baptized, for Michael baptized them, and they shone with splendour like the son. And the Holy Abbâ (Father) marvelled, and said, "Amânû'êl hath the power to do everything."
The same text, after mentioning "the Prophets and the sons of the Prophets, who have not found completely the baptism of life," speaks of the "two companies of prophets," evidently referring to those who are dead, in these terms:
They ascend out of Sheol and they settle themselves to rest in the Tabernacle. Now this taketh place on Sabbath days. Similarly among Christians, there are some who have been (or, who are) sinners, and in whom there is little of the grape; these shall not be repulsed. [Those who have received] a little of the grape are those who have received the Faith, that is to say the seal of baptism. Such shall not be destroyed.
