The draw means that the Ibrox men will have to wait at least one more week before clinching second place with Aberdeen defeating Kilmarnock 3-0 at Pittodrie to reduce the deficit to eight points.
Manager Walter Smith made two changes from last Saturday with Nacho Novo and Charlie Adam replacing Gavin Rae and Dado Prso whilst Hibernian made five changes from their Hampden catastrophe on Tuesday with Shelton Martis, Ross Chisholm, Dean Shiels, Kevin McCann and Steven Fletcher replacing Rob Jones, David Murphy, Scott Brown, Ivan Sproule and Damon Gray.
Kevin Thomson, as on his previous return to Easter Road, was the target of sickening abuse from the home fans - as indeed was Barry Ferguson
Despite the glorious sunshine, it was as always a bitterly cold afternoon in Leith as the teams kicked off.
Hibs opened the scoring in nineteen minutes when Steven Fletcher caught Brahim Hemdani in possession some thirty yards from goal, then played a one-two with Abdessalam Benjelloun before rifling the ball home.
Four minutes later the scores were level when Adam netted with a twenty-yard wide-angled free-kick from almost exactly the same spot as he had scored on 4 March.
Both sides were all out in attack in an effort to secure control of the game, but chances were few and far between - but Barry Ferguson should have scored in 44 minutes when he was clean through on a Kris Boyd pass only to slice his shot wide of the target.
That miss was to prove costly - for deep in first-half injury time Kevin McCann sent a 25-yard shot screaming into the roof of the net following a Dean Shiels corner.
The Ibrox defence had been found wanting throughout that first-half, and things almost went from bad to worse two minutes after the restart when Ugo Ehiogu's slip allowed Benji to move clear on goal only for his chip to drift wide of the target.
Boyd had an even worse miss in 51 minutes when he totally miskicked Ferguson's cross wide - but the scores were level again two minutes later with a superb goal, the best of the six, when a Ferguson - Adam - Novo move released Alan Hutton through on the advancing Andrew McNeil, the full-back's exquisite chip finding the net.
Rangers were now on top - and were denied an absolute stonewall penalty in 57 minutes when Chris Hogg upended the overlapping Hutton. Incredibly Referee Charlie Richmond waved play on - he must have been the only man amongst the 14,681 crowd who did not spot the offence.
Four minutes later the full consequences of that refereeing blunder were underlined when Lewis Stevenson's free-kick broke to Steven Whittaker on the edge of the area, the full-back's drive finding the corner of the net.
The pendulum appeared to have swung in favour of the home side - but there was to be one further twist in the tail in 77 minutes - incredibly from another Adam free-kick that yet again caught McNeil unawares, on this occasion from some 25 yards to make it 3-3.
It was end-to-end to the death - Benji's 84th minute shot on the turn from eighteen yards following a Stevenson free-kick being held by Allan McGregor, then four minutes later it took a life-saving interception from David Weir to deny Fletcher.
There was one final drama in the script however - a long through-ball from Sasa Papac finding Boyd racing through only for the striker to be hauled down by Beuzelin. It was a marginal call as to whether or not the offence was inside the box - but whilst the Hibs player was red-carded the referee awarded only a free-kick.
On this occasion, Adam's effort was deflected wide - and the match finished all-square.
Afterwards Walter Smith summarised:
"This was a difficult match with a great level of commitment. We kept coming back, and I have no great complaint about the result."
HIBERNIAN McNeil; Whittaker, Hogg, Martis, Stevenson; Beuzelin, Chisholm, McCann (Lynch 76), Shiels (Sproule 61); Fletcher, Benjelloun
UNUSED SUBS Simon Brown, Ayre, Gray, Zemmama, Campbell
RANGERS McGregor; Hutton, Ehiogu, Weir, Papac; Ferguson, Hemdani (Burke 70), Thomson, Adam; Novo, Boyd
UNUSED SUBS Klos, Murray, Rae, Sionko, Lennon, Shinnie
REFEREE Charlie Richmond