The Book of Traversing Eternity is an Egyptian funerary text known of in the time of Apuleius. It was made of papyrus and created so that people who were considering their deaths had spells and sacred rituals that continued their existence after dying. This continuation of life was envisaged as being both in the world (the spirit-body) and amongst the gods of heaven.

The Book of the Dead, is a translation of the Arabic Kitab al-Mayyitun, the name given by the tomb robbers to the papyrus roll found in almost every fine tomb in Thebes, which was written during the Graeco-Roman period. The work describes how the soul of the deceased, in possession of the power which the Book of Traversing Eternity has given it, will be able to travel from one end of Egypt to the other, and also visit all the sacred places, to assist at the festivals, and to enjoy communion not only with the gods and spirits who assemble there, but also with its kinsfolk and acquaintances whom it left behind alive on the earth. The book was written so that the deceased were secure in the knowledge of the resurrection of the body:

Thy soul liveth in heaven in the presence of Ra. Thy Ka hath acquired the divine nature of the gods. Thy body remaineth in the deep house (i.e. tomb) in the presence of Osiris.

Thy spirit-body becometh glorious among the living ... thy name is established by the utterance of those who have their being through the Book of Traversing Eternity.