Apple Tree
‘In the center, is the Tree of Life, its branches covering the whole of Gan Eden, containing five hundred varieties of fruit all differing in appearance and taste. Above it are the clouds of glory, and it is smitten by the four winds so that its odour is wafted from one end of the world to the other. From the 13th century Rabbinic text Yalkut Shimeoni’, (As quoted in Abraham’s Cohen’s 1995 book Everyman’s Torah.) If the Garden of Eden was in the mountains of eastern Kazakhstan, then perhaps there was an apple tree, because that’s where the origin of wild apples has been traced.
The Apple tree is celebrated at the Jewish New year with slices of apple dipped in honey for a sweet new year.
Apples also symbolize temptation and sexuality.
In Islam, “A good word is as a good tree, its root set firm and its branches in heaven.” Trees, the largest living things on earth, stretch up to the heavens and are as a bridge between two worlds. They are the upright path and the upright person and are depicted in art and architecture. (Reference: The Tree Symbol in Islam by Noble Ross Reat)