According to Jewish religious tradition, after the death of Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students, he was left with only five students, among them Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The latter went on to become the greatest teacher of Torah in his generation, and is purported to have authored the "Zohar", a landmark text of Jewish mysticism. The actual authorship of the "Zohar" has been disputed, and scholarship generally points to Moses de León as the author of the "Zohar", pseudepigraphically attributed to Bar Yochai by him in an attempt to legitimize the work.