Hugh Nibley
"In his dreams Lehi finds himself wandering 'in a dark and dreary waste,' a 'dark and dreary wilderness,' where he must travel 'for the space of many hours in darkness,' lost and helpless (1 Nephi 8:4-8). Of all the images that haunt the early Arab poets this is by all odds the commonest; it is the standard nightmare of the Arab; and it is the supreme boast of every poet that he has traveled long distances through dark and dreary wastes all alone. Invariably darkness is given as the main source of terror (the heat and glare of the day, though nearly always mentioned, are given second place), and the culminating horror is almost always a 'mist of darkness,' a depressing mixture of dust, and clammy fog, which, added to the night, completes the confusion of any who wander in the waste. Quite contrary to what one would expect, these dank mists are described by travelers in all parts of Arabia, and al-Ajajj, one of the greatest of early desert poets, tells how a 'mist of darkness' makes it impossible for him to continue a journey to Damascus. In its nature and effect Lehi's 'mist of darkness' (1 Nephi 8:23) conforms to this strange phenomenon most exactly." (Lehi in the Desert and The World of the Jaredites, p. 47-8).
1 Nephi 8:7-33 The symbolism in Lehi's dream
SYMBOL (what Lehi saw) MEANING
1. Large and spacious field (v.9) the world (v. 20)
2. Tree (v.10) the love of God (1 Nephi 11:22)
3. Fruit (v.10) the love of God or eternal life (1 Nephi 15:36)
4. River of water (v.13) depths of the river=depths of hell (1 Nephi 12:16)
5. Rod of iron (v.19) the word of God (1 Nephi 11:25)
6. Strait and narrow path (v.20) the way to eternal life (2 Nephi 31:18)
7. Mist of Darkness (v.23) the temptations of the devil (1 Nephi 12:17)
8. Great and spacious building the vain imaginations and pride of the world (1 Nephi 11:36, 12:18)
SYMBOL (what Nephi saw) MEANING
9. Fountain of living waters (1 Nephi 11:25) the love of God (1 Nephi 11:25)
10. Terrible gulf (1 Nephi 12:18) the justice of the Eternal God (1 Nephi 12:18)