During his heavenly vision, the prophet Lehi was given a book to read. From that book he learned of the fate of the city of Jerusalem (see 1 Nephi 1:11-13), and he also learned about the coming of the Messiah (see 1 Nephi 1:19). Nephi later experienced a vision concerning the future of his descendants (1 Nephi 13-14). He then informed his readers that he had been shown these things by "the angel of the Lord" (1 Nephi 14:29) "and also others who have been, to them hath he shown all things, and they have written them, and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb" (1 Nephi 14:26).
John Tvedtnes comments that in Jubilees 3:21-29, we read that Jacob, during his second vision at Bethel (when returning from Syria), read from seven heavenly tablets brought to him by an angel. The tablets recorded all that would happen to his sons in the future, and Jacob documented this and everything else he saw in the vision. The story is told in first person in a Dead Sea Scrolls fragment, (4QAJa ar), which is sometimes called the Apocryphon of Jacob.
The Cologne Mani Codex cites portions of the now lost Apocalypse of Enosh (Enosh was the son of Seth and grandson of Adam). The Apocalypse, a first-person account, notes that an angel appeared to Enosh (spelled Enos in the King James Bible) and brought him to a mountain, where "He spoke to me and said: 'The Pre-Eminent Almighty One has sent me to you so that I might reveal to you the secret (things) which you contemplated, since indeed you have chosen truth. Write down all these hidden things upon bronze tablets and deposit (them) in the wilderness.'" The abbreviated account then notes that "many things similar to these are in his writings (which) set forth his ascension and revelation, for everything that he heard and saw he recorded (and) left behind for the subsequent generations."
Adam evidently hid the book away, for four generation later its location (in a cave) was revealed to Enoch in a dream. Enoch read the book and then hid it away. The book was later delivered to Noah by the angel Raphael, and from it he learned how to build the ark. Before entering the ark, Noah hid the book away, but it seems that he later retrieved it, for he passed it to Shem, who transmitted it to succeeding generations.
In Jewish and Samaritan tradition, when Moses ascended the mountain to converse with God, he actually went to heaven. One Samaritan text says that "he ascended to heaven, and the Torah [law] was put on his hand." According to Jubilees 1:27-2;1, an angel of the presence brought to Moses tablets containing the history of the world, from the first creation until the sanctuary of God would be built forever in the midst of Israel. Moses was instructed to copy part of the account, and this portion formed the basis of the Pentateuch and of Jubilees itself. The commentary on the law of Moses written by the Samaritan Marqa (Memar Marqa) also says that Moses, enthroned in the presence of God and angels, wrote down the words of the heavenly book as dictated to him by God. The story is confirmed in Moses 1:40-41; 2:1, where we read that God dictated to Moses and told him to write his words in a book (compare with Jubilees 1f:4-5, 26).
According to the Qur' an, Moses, John the Baptist, Jesus, and David received heavenly books (see Surah 2:50; 3:48; 17:57; 19:13, 31). [John Tvedtnes, The Book of Mormon and Other Hidden Books: Out of Darkness unto Light, pp. 76-90] [See the commentary on Ether 3:25]