In these chapters, Maimonides sets out detailed analyses of the nature of Prophecy and the way in which it can be said that God communicated to the Prophets. He sets out a detailed taxonomy (with 11 types!) of Prophecy in chapter 45. These chapters aim to emphasize that whenever the Prophets speak of ‘God having spoken to them’, this is to be understood as having happened through the meidation of something — either angels or their own imaginative faculty — and not as the literal speech of God. Similarly, when a Prophet speaks about having done strange and, strictly speaking, impossible things, these are to be understood as having taken place in a vision, and not in actuality.

The correctness of this theory cannot be doubted, and only those do not comprehend it who do not know to distinguish between that which is possible, and that which is impossible. The instances quoted may serve as an illustration of other similar Scriptural passages not quoted by me. … After it has once been stated that the event described is to be understood figuratively, it must be assumed for certain that the whole is a prophetic vision.