What other imagery could be likened to the brilliant whiteness of the fruit that Lehi saw in his vision? Lights, of course, are often white and bright. In the Holy Place of the tabernacle of Moses and later in the temple of Jerusalem stood a seven-branched candelabra or lampstand. It was lit not by wax candles but by oil lamps. It was the main source of light in the tabernacle tent and the temple edifice. By standing back and looking at that seven-branched menorah or candelabra all lit up, one could make out the image of a tree—the world tree—with light that was bright, white, and beautiful. Margaret Barker (the Methodist scholar of ancient temple symbolism and ceremony, mentioned in the discussion under 1 Nephi 8:10, above) writes about the candelabra representing the Tree of Life. It is through the oil of sacred lamps that we can let our light shine in such a way that when people see our good works they will glorify, not us, but our Father who is in Heaven.
Kevin Christensen, "The Temple, the Monarchy, and Wisdom: Lehi’s World and the Scholarship of Margaret Barker," in Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 449–522.