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    "name": "Selections from the Small Book of the Balance"
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    "title": "Selections from the Small Book of the Balance",
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    "words": 10699,
    "text": "## p. 426 (leaf n431)\n\nThat one inform of that, it is therefore necessary for the reader of these my books — that he who has experience and knowledge of the matter of the Natures read them — that he continue the study of them, for the object in them and the benefit is not little, and they are the object and the main source needed for everything that is in the world of a thing, and peace.\n٣\nAnd it says: the indication concerning the place of Heat and Cold and Moisture and Dryness is only the meaning of our saying the sphere, not the meaning of our saying the body of the sphere, but they are that which subsists in it.\n٦\nSo consider and imagine that the Heat from it is the upper circle and the Cold from it is the point which is called the pole, and these two are the agents, and that the Dryness was acted upon from the rotation of the sphere at that time, and likewise the Moisture; when we have completed the teaching of Heat and Cold, how they are, and we return to teaching you what Moisture and Dryness are in a summary statement that comprises all that we intend from that, if God most high wills, may His majesty be glorified.\n٩\nAnd it says: it has become necessary first from our discourse that we know that Heat and Cold and Moisture and Dryness in the absolute sense are higher than Fire and Air and Water and Earth by the same distance that is between Fire and Air and Water and Earth and between\n١٢\n\n\n## p. 427 (leaf n432)\n\nThe sphere encompassing it, for it is under the sphere encompassing it. And now we return and say how it was composed from them and we say: the proof that the sphere is heat and cold and moisture and dryness is that you know first that the circle according to the geometers is what encompasses without body, and the meaning of body is corporeal substance, and that the line is length without breadth and without body and likewise is breadth, and that the point is a thing imagined intellectually not sensorially and it subsists in potential as if it were a thing imagined and existing by sense, and that imagining is in other than that state not the true soul of the thing. Just as the circle encompasses without body, likewise we say that the circle of this sphere [118] is heat and it is the manifest and the higher, and that the point from it is coldness, and that by the very motion of it there was generated between heat and coldness a thing that is neither hot nor cold but is a thing of excessive drying, much hidden, that sense can scarcely perceive without heat, in subtlety and penetration, so it was called dryness. Then there was generated from all of them a thing thick [from that] and it took a spreading form and in it was softness and it was called moisture. And this statement we did not establish upon it a demonstration three times it would be long, and it behoves you, O reader the learner, to take that by transmission and to leave disputation in it except to its masters and to proceed to its benefit. So when you see it sound you know that the principle is sound because every false premise does not become.\n\n\n## p. 428 (leaf n433)\n\nYou have investigated it truly, so know that. Whoever composes from what he desires its permanence upon the aeon something upon the composition of that circle whose description we have previously given, he attains what he desires of that, if God Exalted wills, may His name be glorified.\n٣\nAnd you say: that from the body of the sphere also is a fifth Nature according to what all the philosophers have said, and you have not added anything to it; yet I am not satisfied with that and I show it to you as a vision in your intellect so that you may conceive it, by the permission of God Exalted.\n٦\nSo you say: the meaning of our statement “the body of the sphere” is what has become customary in our discourse and the discourse of the philosophers, that it is the substance receptive of every thing, and it is that which is in every thing and from which every thing [comes] and to which every thing returns, just as its Creator, Exalted, our Lord and Master, created it; He placed it in every [thing] and every [thing] returns to it. This is what we have undertaken to explain of the states of the Natures. As for how the form of heat, cold, moisture, dryness and substance truly is, that is the path to the science of the Balances.\n١٢\nAnd I begin, if God Exalted wills, and we say first: that which is proper to these things are the ten categories of Aristotle, which are substance, quantity, quality, time, place, relation, possession, position, acting and being-acted-upon.\n١٥\nFor these categories comprehend existents only, except that the inference is only upon what exists from our discourse on the Natures, and no one finds a way against me that\n\n\n## p. 429 (leaf n434)\n\nI intended the definition of that which does not exist, and our statement that it is not seen does not mean that it does not exist, so understand what we intend, for that is the meaning, if God the Exalted wills, His name. As for the substance (jawhar) - may God preserve you - it is the thing with which the interstice is filled, and it is that which is formed with every form, and in it is every thing, and from it every thing is compounded, and to it every thing is dissolved. And if you do not know what it is from this statement, it is the Habaʾ and its colour tends to whiteness as it is; so when the sun stands over it, it ignites and appears. It is necessary that you know that that is the soul of the body of the luminous greatest sphere - glory be to its Creator and His names be sanctified - and it is the body which is in all the tripartite existents, which are the animal, the plant, and the stone (hajar). And it is not possible for anyone to touch it, and if he touches it he finds no touch for it, and he cannot take anything from it with his hand except that its Creator, may His majesty be exalted, manages it as He wills, or for whomever He loves that there be in it a virtue, or who is sanctified in His sight among His prophets and the family of His prophet and His chosen ones and His saints, or whomever He loves that He manifest through him a mighty matter. And we ask God the Exalted for aid in that which He has bestowed upon us and granted us of His ample bounty - His names be sanctified and exalted with great exaltation. This then is the definition of the substance (jawhar) itself. As for heat, its colour is only made evident to you as the colour of the substance (jawhar). That which we have mentioned of the colour of the substance (jawhar) is not a colour belonging to it, but rather it is what is generated between it and the sun, and it is not in the power of any of the creatures to manifest the substance (jawhar) except by that which I have shown you. As for the colour of heat, it is the pure redness, and it is that which appears.\n\n\n## p. 430 (leaf n435)\n\nIn the heights of the fire like the reddest of colors, that is heat without moisture and without dryness but the substance only. Nor is it possible for anyone to do more than this \n٣ \nAs for coldness, it is the pure blackness of great purity and it is what is generated from everything that is dissolved by fire. As for in the fire, it is the whiteness that rises over the fire at certain times of it until it covers it then departs when the fire continues; it is generated in the fire only because it is dissolved by the fire from the body that the fire consumes, so it must have something that rises with it then separates from it. It is also the purity that occurs before the cold that falls from the air by an hour, and it is black and after that becomes white, and likewise in the fire. \n٩ \nSo know that, if God the Exalted wills. \nAs for moisture, it is the accidental greenness in the fire and its origin is white because all whiteness is from moisture and it is + generated from + every blackness that returns to whiteness \n١٢ \nor whatever color it was, it finds anew what then inverts and emerges from it without failing whiteness of intense whiteness and great, so know that. \nAs for dryness, it is the most fatiguing of things and the greatest of them and it is the things \n١٥ \nthat attach to everything so it becomes dry or cracked or deficient, and its color tends to blueness with a speck of whiteness in it. You see it in the fire when what is burned by the fire is of much dryness, a blue lock emerges in it before the green; when the moisture is greater the green lock precedes, and sometimes one of them appears in the burned thing and the other does not appear. Likewise the thing is attributed as being cold upon \n١٨\n\n\n## p. 431 (leaf n436)\n\nThe release, and in it there is heat, dryness, and moisture, and a power that is not attributed to any one of them singly; rather it is because the cold acts upon that thing and its action appears in it, while the action of heat, dryness, and moisture does not appear in it. Likewise the moisture burns ٣ in that which is burnt and the dryness appears, while the others do not; and it is not permissible that both of them depart from it entirely—so know that.\n٦ Now that we have come to the locus of the Elements and their colours and all that pertains to them, let us say thereafter whether it is possible for man to encompass these four Elements and the substance together or not. So we say: Have we not already set forth, and did the philosophers before us mention, that all existing things are only substances and accidents inhering in them, the former being the bearer of the latter ٩ [or] in some respect, and that in none of the existing things is there any other thing entering into it? It has necessarily followed from what we have said and they have said that heat has no weight, nor likewise cold, moisture, and dryness, nor likewise the substance apparently. And this ١٢ [is speech] of one who has not fully immersed himself in this science as it deserves to be immersed in, but has only glanced at it superficially; and all of this is absurd and is not necessary in the inner meaning of the philosophers’ discourse, nor in our discourse either—so it is necessary that you know it. And this is a very great secret; consider, and by the truth of ١٥ my lord, I have indeed presented it to him and he said to me: By the truth of my grandfather, there will surely appear to you in the world after your time a great matter from this science. And by God, if I have immersed my discourse in\n\n\n## p. 432 (leaf n437)\n\nThese sciences: with them nothing in the world will be lacking to you, and that you may know the wonders. The science of the Balances is not useful in the science of the Work only; rather it is useful in what is greater than it, namely \n٣ the science of talismans, theurgy and the mighty Laws, on account of the like of which men slaughter one another. So know and understand what I say. Now it has become necessary, upon verification, that Heat, Cold, Moisture and Dryness have weights and that the substance has a weight; there is no escape \n٦ from that. Otherwise it would be necessary, when we combine what is not seen and does not exist [with what is not seen and does not exist], for example in Heat and Dryness, with what is not seen and does not exist and has no weight belonging to any of them, that nothing would come to be from it. Likewise, when we combine Nothing with \n٩ Nothing, Nothing would come to be from the combination. Likewise, were we to combine what does not exist and is not seen and has no weight [with what does not exist and is not seen and has no weight belonging to it], it being like Cold and Dryness, with what does not exist and is not seen and has no weight, there would come to be from it something not seen \n١٢ and not existing and having no weight, and all that is predicated upon it would be nullified. For our saying “it does not exist and is not seen and has no weight” is nothing but the definition of Nothing; so know that. They defined it only as “it does not exist” because, by my life, it does not exist separately and is not seen \n١٣ likewise; as for “it has no weight,” that is only its subtlety. But that they should deny it weight, being and visibility altogether—God forbid, exalted be His name, from this state! How vile and hideous is speech concerning it! We ask God, blessed and exalted, for fair aid in \n١٥ what we have intended, and that He not remove our fair opinion of men because of them and the evil of their opinion.\n\n\n## p. 433 (leaf n438)\n\nto themselves, for pride and arrogance do not leave them benefiting or benefiting others, and the condition of the learned and the believers is not thus. It is therefore incumbent — may God keep you — that we not stint the deserving of knowledge, nor yourself either, from study, knowledge, speculation and investigation; so know that, if God Most High wills.\n٣\nIt has also become obligatory from our statement after that, that these elements have weights, since it is possible for man to encompass all that has weight, and because that which has weight is possible to ٦ touch, find and place; so if it is thus, then it is possible. It has therefore become obligatory also by this statement that the substance is possible for whomever God — glorified be His majesty — loves, that He make it like the rest of the bodies that are prepared from it as desired, like the saw for the carpenter and the iron ٩ for the smith and the like of this and its counterparts. And likewise we say thereafter concerning heat and cold and moisture and dryness.\nAnd we say after that: Now it is necessary that you know what is the limit of quantity and quality, so that ١٢ when you have known that, there will be for you the connection to taking the substance in your hand and working from it whatever you wish, and taking the four elements and imposing them upon the body and loosening whatever you wish to loosen from it and returning it; and this is a mighty state, O my brother. So see how you guard this ١٥ knowledge save from its folk; and I caution you by God — glorified be His name — for it is among the mighty secrets that are given only to the great among His chosen, His saints and His elect. And God, it reaches not ١٨ except by what I say at the end of this my book, and its sign is that I name it the Testament.\n\n\n## p. 434 (leaf n439)\n\nAs for alchemy, it is the comprehensive [art] that comprises our statement of numbers, such as a number equal to a number or a number differing from a number, and all the ratls and the numbers and the measures ٣ of the weights and the measures of capacity and whatever resembles that in it. They only meant by alchemy the quantity of the thing in its essence, that is, knowledge of its measure with verification—so understand, if God Exalted wills.\n٦ As for quality, they only meant by it that they should know how the thing is: whether it is long, short, inclined, upright, hot, cold—that is, how [١٢٠] its state is and how the form of its affair is. They also only meant by “how” that they should know all that is in the thing of attributes, just as they meant knowledge of its measure by quantity. This is the comprehensive grasp of all things, for nothing is devoid of quantity and quality. If you were to ask about a human being, you would say in your question about him: “How much is he?” and the answer: “One.” Then if you asked about ١٢ his members and joints, of his bones and his veins and all that is in him, the answer would likewise be according to number. If you said: “How much is his weight?” it would be said to you: “So-and-so many ratls.” Likewise, if you said: “How is he?” it would be said to you: “He stands and sits and speaks and laughs ١٥ and he is brown or white or black or one of the colours, and he has hair and he has skin and he has veins and in him is such-and-such,” until all that is in him is recounted. Whatever was of attribute entered under quality, and whatever was of measure entered under quantity, in this manner. ١٨ So know what they meant by that. They only performed all of this for the weighing of the Natures, nothing else. So no\n\n\n## p. 435 (leaf n440)\n\nThey fancied that they worked only for the stars or for other things; all of that is only under the Natures and under their Balances. And if man is capable of weighing fire alone so that he knows what is in it of heat and dryness and substance with verification, then ٣ the limit of a thousand men is easier than the limit of some of it or the limit of one of its elements; so understand that, if God Most High wills.\nAs for time and place, they are what is needed for all your operations; they are indispensable, ٦ whether you wanted them or not; they are for you, whether you will or refuse, except that the choice of their limits from their evil remains upon you. And this is for you in particular, and we shall show you first what ٩ time and place are, so that you may choose the place of stillness from other than it.\nSo you say: our saying — may God give you power — “time” is that by which passage is made from one state to another state, like your being seated, so you are in your time seated, then you rise; so that which is from the beginning of your rising from your sitting is time, and it is one ١٢ as long as you remain standing. And if you sit, it is also time and you are in it with a limit other than the first. And time is one; and when it is said “this is time in sitting and in standing time,” it is not that time is changed from one thing. And if it were so, it would be necessary ١٥ that there be time in everything and for everything time, and this is impossible; it needs no investigation nor refutation; rather man or the thing in it changes from\n\n\n## p. 436 (leaf n441)\n\nstate to another. And what we want from you is that you determine for us that time in which standing, sitting, motion and rest occur. And you also need to assign ٣ to it a measure of quantity and also quality, so that you say how much was the measure of Zayd's sitting, and how much was the measure of the medicine being a poison, and how much was the measure of the medicine being dissolved. As for quality, it is that you say: the time was hot or the time was cold. Therefore ٦ it was necessary to present quantity and quality before time and place, so know that, if God Most High wills.\nAs for place, it is that from which no thing is devoid of being in a place at all. And the philosophers did not intend by it only that ٩ [١٢٠] but rather they intended by it that the thing which you want to begin in whatever time it is, and it is also included under quantity and quality. And we shall explain that, if God Most High wills.\nAs for knowledge of the thing which you want to begin: if you wanted to produce fire, ١٢ it was indispensable for you to confine the substance to some place, then apply heat to it in a place other than that place in which you confined the substance. And likewise if ١٥ you wanted to apply dryness to it also, it was in a place other than the place in which you applied heat to the substance, and quality precedes quantity in this state. Do you not see that when you wanted to produce fire you needed first its forms, then\n\n\n## p. 437 (leaf n442)\n\nto their composition, then to their number and the places of their locations, it has become necessary that the quality in this case precede the quantity. And there is nothing of disagreement in that, because many things have the quantity precede the quality in them ٣ and the quality precede the quantity.\n\nAnd since we have finished with the knowledge of these five things which are the substance and the quantity and the quality and the time and the place, it is incumbent that you continue the study of them until ٦ you are always [occupied] with all that is in them of the kinds that fall under them, so that if speech were composed for you as an example you would know all that is in it of substance and of quantity and of quality and time and place, and you would say: its first definition is that there is in it a substance and it is the origin, and you would write it thus ٩ and thus, and its quality thus and thus [this is the first thing that comes upon you] and its time is limited by thus and thus and its place thus and thus. This is the first thing that comes upon you of the matter of the Balances. So if you know that with a sound knowledge until nothing is disordered for you in it ١٢ you enter into the science of the Natures as your entering into its beginnings, and you extract all that you desire of the knowledge of its Nature. And know also that it is not permissible that time and place and [quantity] and substance and quantity and quality be in two different things of one quantity ١٥ nor agreeing also in genus and species; so if they agreed the second limited thing would be like the first, rather it would be it, except that the quantity, which is the measure, also distinguishes between them, like that the first be much and the second little or the reverse of that. And it is ١٨ what we have made known to you first in the first part () in heat and cold and dryness\n\n\n## p. 438 (leaf n443)\n\nand moisture and another thing. Act on the understanding that this is a claim of ours; so examine among all existents whether there is in them a thing agreeing with a thing in all its limits, and there is no escape from\n٣ . No. And if a thing agrees with a thing in all its limits, it is that very thing and nothing else. Therefore\ndifference and agreement have occurred, and the metals have been worked thereby according to what is in them of the mutual overcoming of the Natures, so that it is as though in one place there were Sulphur and silver and pitch and salt and gold\n٦ and quicksilver and copper and tutty and earth and stones and pebbles and ruby and other than that;\nor as though the place of the ruby were gold and the place of the gold were ruby, and all the places\nwere proximate. The cause is only what we have established first, and one dispenses thereby here with the proof\n٩ from the mutual overcoming of the Natures and their indwelling in some places and not others and their clinging one to another. We hold that heat opposes the [٢٢١] cold and does not harmonise with it, and this\nis absurd; yet I shall show you that heat resembles cold and that cold resembles\n١٢ heat, and likewise I shall show you regarding moisture and dryness.\nNow that we have finished with all these five, let us return and show you things\nfrom their kinds so that you may have strength to weigh what you wished to weigh. An example of that is that there be a Stone in which there is\n١٥ a quality proportionate to the quantity of its Balances in measure, and its substance is compounded upon it\nwith its Natures all at once, without anything further being added to it thereafter of the substance, and its weight\nis equivalent to its place. Another example is that there be a Stone in which there is a quality contrary and alien\n١٨ to its quantity, and its substance is compounded upon it with its Natures in successive stages, and its weight is increased thereby\n\n\n## p. 439 (leaf n444)\n\nand their place are two things that are mutually repellent. Another example is a stone whose quantity is proportionate to its quality ٣ and whose substance is not increased in it, upon which its Natures have been composed all at once, and whose time is contrary to its place. Another example is that a thing exists whose quantity is contrary to its quality ٦ and whose substance carries upon it its Natures all at once, and whose time accords with its place. Another example is that a thing exists whose quantity is contrary to the quality and whose substance is composed upon it ٩ its Natures in successive increments, and whose time accords with its place, whatever it may be. So if ١٢ you have known these things and mastered them thoroughly, then you are expert in the Balances. As for the first, it is the thing such that when its like is composed, how little is its dissolution ١٥ and corruption; it is that which does not decay nor does anything remove it until its Creator, blessed and exalted, destroys it. Or did you not know that when the quantity is proportionate to the quality, and the quality is bound to it, and the substance from it, its Natures have already been composed upon it all at once, then its Natures are not artificial [not] but rather are the Work of the Creator, mighty and majestic, in which ١٢ there is no corruption and no defect. And when the existent in which it has been composed is equal in its time to the time, then the composed thing is incorruptible in plants and stones, and is so in animals in the like of the righteous masters, the blessings of God be upon them. But if it is from ١٥ the Work of human beings, then it is never permissible that it be thus, nor is it composed, and peace.\n\n\n## p. 440 (leaf n445)\n\nAs for the second: if the casting differs from the casting and all that is in the compound is equilibrated according to the first course, it is like one of the things that corruption, change and alteration befall, from colour to colour and from measure to measure. But if they are different and its substance is different, increasing, and its time is contrary to its place, that existent is the contrary of coming-to-be and is proceeding on the path of dissolving corruption. The meaning of that is that a thing composed of things in which there is difference and agreement is overtaken by corruption, which dissolves it, so it returns to its origin and is counted among what we have mentioned concerning it. That occurs in the plant, the stone and the animal in the perishable, the passing-away, upon which the contradiction of causes is great, short of life; sometimes its annihilation occurs while embryonic or before it is completed, according to the measure in which the difference has occurred. As for the third: if the casting agrees with the casting and they are all proportionate in measure and the substance is compounded upon it with its Natures at one stroke and its time is contrary to its place [121b], then if the time is contrary to the place it is not permissible that it be otherwise than by the contrary. So if the two are contrary by the contrary, whereby one of them agrees with the preceding third that is in agreement, then four have been sound and one has been nullified, so it is sound and belongs to the rest of the things whose time or the time of another does not agree with it and follows the course of the few things that perish and dissolve swiftly. And if its place is corrupt it belongs to the things whose place does not suit it, while the other places are suitable to it and to nothing else.\n\n\n## p. 441 (leaf n446)\n\nLike that the compound is corrupt in the drop so that the surrounding becomes sound agreeing with it or the opposite of that. And understand our secret here, I mean in the figures, for by God if you have learned them they are from the man. And look and persevere in the study—may God preserve you—for it ٣ is most commendable to you in the end, in this world and the next, if God wills. And if its time is contrary in its essence, not from the aspect of the similarity of the composite things, it was among the things whose composition and position were sound but whose days were corrupt, so they are swift to depart, and their example ٦ is the example of the margins that are neither drop nor surrounding. So understand, if you wish, for it is the object of what we have defined, if God the Exalted wills.\nAs for the fourth: if the quantity is contrary to the quality while its substance ٩ and its natures are sound in composition at one stroke and its time is equal to its place, then it is the opposite of that which precedes it, namely that the thing is corrupt, yet not with that same corruption; rather this one remains. Therefore we said that it is the opposite ١٢ of what is corrupted in its time and its place and was among the things whose composition is corrupt—either also the contrariety that is between the quantity and the quality is contrary or similar. So if it is proportionate, one of them is sound and the other is corrupt, just as we said concerning time and place. ١٥ And if it is contrary, it is worse and more corrupting in consequence, and that is because it nullifies the restriction of its number and even if it does not, it does not become defined and dissolution overtakes it according to that.\nAs for the fifth figure, we have already informed you what is in the contrariety of the quality and the quantity. ١٨ As for its substance being carried upon it by its natures in strokes, then this is effected\n\n\n## p. 442 (leaf n447)\n\nIn sum. And if you did not wish to complete what is in it of the matter of time and place you would have been independent of that; rather this corruption only attached to this compound from the aspect of its compounding \n٣ because the compound was of little knowledge in the ordering of quantity and quality. So if its time was equal to its place then it would be a sound cause, and if it was contrary to it and quantity and quality agreed an effect occurred and it was also intermediate. So if all is annulled together with \n٦ its being artificial the whole is annulled from that compounding. And God knows best what you say \nand those rooted in knowledge. \nAs for what will prompt you concerning the compounding of these things which we have not mentioned, carry it upon this; I only adduced that in the Book of the Principles alone. And now when I begin \n٩ the operation of these things [figure ١٢٣] imagined for you in them their reality, and beware lest you neglect them in your operation especially, and upon you is the study of them for they are the root of every knowledge. And my discourse concerning them is not like my discourse in the rest of the sciences, and they are few books not \n١٢ numerous; but I left nothing in them without clarifying it and bringing it in these books. So collect them first and read what is in them, and it behooves you, O reader, that \n١٥ you join some of them to others so that there may emerge for you the knowledge of the secrets of creation and the Work of Nature through the length of your study of them. So intend that and you will be one of those we mean, if God most high wills.\n\n\n## p. 443 (leaf n448)\n\ndiagram page showing five circular figures (alchemical compositional schemes)\n\n\n## p. 444 (leaf n449)\n\nAnd since we have finished the representation [of] what is and what is not, we have not mentioned what its being is not permissible at all, and it is of two forms, either first or second. And the cause in ٣ that substance only, because it is the root which is placed first, then built upon. So we say: the substance either the Natures are carried upon it all at once [١٢٣] one time, and we have already made clear that it is like the creation of the Creator, may He be exalted and glorified, of what was not, and the second is our action in ٦ the substance and the carrying of the Natures upon it in stages. So the first was liberated, and only its weight is obtained for us and its liberation upon verification is not obtained for us, and the second that its weight is obtained for us and its liberation upon verification is possible for us, so understand that so that you may have ٩ thereby a first drill and share in the made thing with other than it, for the two are internal to the genus and the species, external from the genus and the species, agreeing in them, differing in them. So glory be to the Creator of these things, how great they are and how noble He is, and sanctified are His names. ١٢ Then the Natures are carried in the first which is one time, according to what it says. And that is that the Creator, may He be exalted and glorified, commands the Natures to confine the substance in its time and its place which God, exalted is His name, loved that they all be in it, so they mix ١٥ and each of them takes its drop. And I make for that a figure so that its understanding may be brought near to you. And if one of the two agents takes the upper part of the substance, the other takes its lower part; and if one of the two patients takes its length, the other takes its breadth, and that thing is in the manner of the action of ١٨ our Lord, may He be exalted and glorified—how great is this and how elegant, and how did that flow from possibility.\n\n\n## p. 445 (leaf n450)\n\nof the created beings and informing them that it is so, and they reach the point that they do with the Natures whatever they wish, and with the Substance and the Time and the Place and the Quantity and the Quality; yet after their power to do that, they are rendered incapable of operating upon it as He operates. Is He not therefore capable of giving life to the dead! By His might and His majesty, He is capable of all things, glory be to Him, glory be to Him. So understand — may God grant you understanding — that, make it clear, and persist in studying it.\nAs for the second made thing: whoever has knowledge of that, has trained himself in it, and desires its knowledge, and in whom there is skill and knowledge of it, first chooses the Time of that thing which he wishes to compose, then its Place, or its Place then its Time; there is no harm to you in that. Then he chooses for the dissolution of the Natures upon the Substance a fair Quantity and likewise a fair Quality, and he does not fall short in one of them, neither by excess nor by deficiency. Then he first composes one of the two predominants, and let it be the internal one. Beware, beware of composing the external one first, for that is a grave error. Then he composes whatever of the two acted-upon things is of a nature to be compatible with it; so understand it. Then he composes the body of the external one, then composes its follower just as he did in the case of the internal one; thereupon the coming-to-be of the thing from non-being into being becomes sound.\nAs for Time and Place, according to what most of the philosophers have said, they are divided into four divisions: a Time and a Place for Heat, a Time and a Place for Cold, a Time and a Place for Dryness, a Time and a Place for Moisture. And if it were also possible for them to separate what is between Time and Place, they would have become eight; but it was not possible for them to do that. Only those philosophers who were like Aristotle and Plato carried out this procedure, and they did not venture upon what we have mentioned first, because, by my life, it is exceedingly full of corruption and disorder.\n\n\n## p. 446 (leaf n451)\n\nOnly the skilled one confident in his knowledge [231] and craft performs it, which is to compound the thing two by two in one time and one place. That is by choosing the time and place for it at one stroke; this is exceedingly difficult and its occurrence is also rare on account of the times and the climates and on account of the stars and on account of the difficulty of the matter in the compounding therein, because one is not safe from delay or haste, whereby it is spoiled; yet when it is completed it is more secure than the first and slower to come apart and closer to the first compounding. This is the model of the first figure, then the second and the third, that it may be made easy for you, O observer. So understand, if God Most High wills.\nThis is the image of the first figure.\n[diagram]\nThat the quality and the quantity [upon] encompass the time and the place.\n\n\n## p. 447 (leaf n452)\n\nTime and place encompass the substance and the Natures, and the Natures are higher than the substance and the substance is beneath them. The action of the Natures upon it is only its first contact with the Natures, then it is altered by their specific properties so that the substance becomes compounded of Natures. Likewise whoever posits the Natures ٣ without a substrate, and likewise whoever posits accidents without bodies, and likewise the statement to the contrary of this—namely what they said that an accident is not seen and that things are only bodies. Likewise whoever posits from this point bodies and denies accidents, it is only that the substance ٦ has not been separated from these concomitant accidents. So consider what you say and for what meaning you say it, for it is not hidden from a logician nor from a ١٢٣b natural philosopher nor from a philosopher. Persist in study, for it is more beneficial to you, if God Most High wills. [diagram] And this is the image of the second figure.\n\n\n## p. 448 (leaf n453)\n\nAs for the mention of heat and cold and moisture and dryness in every house of the Natures, every house of them contains only one of the four, whichever it may be, according to what we have set forth of the discourse, if God Most High wills.\n٣\nAs for the third figure, it is that which belongs to two, according to what we have set forth of the discourse in orderly sequence for the speech concerning it. It is necessary that you study it and understand the meaning of the figure. Nor is it fitting also that you pass from one figure to another without understanding it, if you desire knowledge of it, if God Most High wills.\n٦\n[diagram]\nThis is all that results from the matter of Quantity and Quality and how the manner of their composition is.\n٩\nAnd since we have come to the sum of what is needed for it < let us also take up and describe one of the times, then follow it with one of the places, then follow it with the difference of Quality according to time and place, then with the difference of Quality according to time and place, then the resolution of the Natures upon the substances after that, then the end of this book is the testament which we promised.\n١٢\n\n\n## p. 449 (leaf n454)\n\nAnd the bearing of the Natures upon the substance: the discourse concerning it is one and is not diverse from all else that enters into it, whether ancient or modern. It is therefore necessary that thou know first that the substance is a thing, and that heat, cold, moisture and dryness ٣ are a thing, and that creation is twofold, first and second, the second resembling the first because it is the Work. And know that discourse must be proportionate in composition to all that is in the world of plants, animals and Stone. As for the Stone, it is formed according to the formation of the mineral Stone ٦ exactly in all its attributes. The animal likewise is formed, save that between it and the first there is a distinction, namely that the Intellect of that animal—I mean the second—never becomes sound nor altogether corrupt, but is as the dullard whose speech is slurred, ٩ almost equalled by the length of the matter, and the slightest thing destroys it and causes it to vanish. Likewise in plants, save that we turn aside in discourse from the chapter of animals and plants and come to the affair of the Stone which we intended, since it is a single genus ١٢ by itself. Now if the reader desires that, we have already mentioned it in its place among these books—I mean those in which the Balances are mentioned, and they are fifteen.\n\n\n## p. 450 (leaf n455)\n\nI made a book and I made these two books—I mean the one preceding this and this book—into one book [and] I named it the Balance and I entitled the first the Choicest ٣ and this the Balance and I made them among the first things a person ought to study like the instruction of the boy ٦ Amjad. Then he follows it with a book called the Book of the Desire and its meaning is the desire of the discipline in the teachings of the principles of the Balances, and the person <who> possesses the knowledge of this book is fit for the knowledge of the Balances. So understand these secrets, for by the truth of my master ٩ were it not that in my extending them there is knowledge I would not have repeated them, and my intention in the books of the Balances is specification out of stinginess with them toward one undeserving of them. Were it not for that I would have expanded them with an expansion that would have made ١٢ the people most swiftly see the nature of every thing, but you know how corruption of the world would be by that. Then I followed that with the Book of the Principles, which is what ought to be read in the wake of these two books and it is the third. Then I composed a fourth book [and] I entitled it the Book of the Greater Moon and it is connected to all that is in the Book of the Principles of the knowledge of the Balance upon verification. And I composed a fifth book called the Book of the Greater Sun following that path. Then I composed a sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh book on the Balances among my books on the Stones and I inform you which they are among the books and they are the First Treatise and the Tenth and the Two Hundred\n\n\n## p. 451 (leaf n456)\n\nAnd the one hundred and fifty and the three, and they follow this [129] course. Then indeed I composed after that a book known as the Book of the Ultimate (Kitab al-Muntaha), in which are many sciences of the Balances (mawazin); thus those are twelve books. And I composed after that three books which I named Explanation of the Hidden Secret (Tafsir al-Sirr al-Maknun) — and I have already mentioned the sum of these books in the Third Catalogue (al-Fihrist al-Thalith) — and these three books are among the books of philosophy; one of them is called the Prophetic Medicine (al-Tibb al-Nabawi) according to the view of the People of the House. And the meaning of my saying “Explanation of the Hidden Secret” is not merely an explanation of what I have set down in these books, but rather there is in them a remainder by which these books are completed and a small amount of explanation of that, [so know it, if God Most High wills]. And we have in this Art (sanʿa) nothing else except what occurs in the books, word by word, or a thing to which necessity calls, so know it, if God Most High wills. And know also that in this my book there are two testaments: a first testament on the instruction of reading the books of the Balances, and a second testament by which the completion of your operation of the Balances and others occurs, if God Most High wills. As for the first testament, it is that you first collect all the books, meaning the fifteen books; then choose a master in whom you trust and in whose knowledge of logic, geometry, philosophy, and the science of the Natures (tabaʾiʿ) you have confidence, and begin reading them from their beginning to their end, so that the truth becomes clear to you, if God Most High wills. And let us now take up what we began before that, concerning the compounding of the Natures and the Substance. So we say: the introduction was upon [the principle] that the Substance is one thing and the Natures are one thing.\n\n\n## p. 452 (leaf n457)\n\nExcept that in the introduction there are also things which it is necessary to know, among them that among the Natures there is what is lighter than the body and among them what is heavier than the body, and they are two and two. ٣ The two light ones are heat and dryness, while the two heavy ones are cold and moisture. Likewise it is necessary to know that it has been necessarily required in absolute terms that everything in which there is heat is light, and likewise the statement concerning dryness; and conversely, everything in which there is cold is heavy, and likewise moisture, and there is no doubt in that. And also ٦ the Natures are divided into four divisions: one seeks the high and it is the great in aspiration, one takes the low, one takes the breadth, and one takes the interiors of things, and there is no doubt in that. And also it is necessary to know that the whole length and the taking to ٩ the heights are from the division of heat, and that shortness and its opposite correspond to those limits for cold, and that taking in breadth belongs to moisture and it occurs in the thick, extended things, while the fine, slender things belong to dryness only. And if we exemplify that ١٢ the body has a certain limit in a place of the world, then it is not in the whole world. And if we determine that it is in the whole world and encompasses it, then the world is not external to it, and it has necessarily followed that part of the world is external to the body and that the world is not devoid of it and of ١٥ its encompassing it; therefore the body is not devoid of the world. And if there is likewise a place for the Natures, then it has necessarily followed that part of the world is empty of them. And if we determine that they encompass the world and no region of the world is devoid of them, then it has necessarily followed that part of the world \n١٨\n\n\n## p. 453 (leaf n458)\n\noutside the Natures and that the world is not [126] devoid of them nor of their encompassing, a disagreement has arisen here whose nature is that the essence is contained in it and the Natures are imposed upon it.\n٣\nWe say: this necessarily requires an example so that you may know how it is and the way to its knowledge, if God the Exalted wills. And this is its example\n[concentric circle diagram]\nAnd if there is no compound except according to this form alone, it is necessary that you know ٦ that when you see the contrary of this you turn from it to something else until it becomes right for you according to these measures and weights; so know that, if God the Exalted wills. And know that the void is not devoid of having an above and a below only; thus it is necessary that it have a root ٩ beneath it and that what is above it is the thing whose nature is to be imposed upon the root without\n\n\n## p. 454 (leaf n459)\n\nDoubt nor disagreement. It has become necessary that you know that when you have obtained time together with place — and we have already set this forth — by gathering the substance in one of the elements, then it is confined for you without doubt, if God Most High wills that.\n٣ I say first: Here there is time and place that are balanced in straightness and agreement with what has preceded, and the substance is such that it may be gathered by one of those things whose way it is to be compounded upon it, since nothing else exists for us. So let us state how it ought to be and on what ground the proof rests, since it was in the premise, that is in the possibility, that the Natures, all of them — and one of them equal to the individuals — are confined to a place among places and that they gather this substance. That which Pythagoras and Amorus\n٩ and Arshijanus and the first rank — and he is followed in most cases because Socrates and his rank say the same — have stated is the imposition of the moisture first upon the substance, because it is the property of moisture to agglutinate things and to soften them and to make their dwelling upon it possible, without doubt therein.\n١٢ As for what the other group has said, it is the imposition of whichever of the Natures you wish upon the substance, and they concede together with their opponents that the nullification of its composition and the difficulty of its path is greater than the verification of its existence and its ease. The first I prefer over all the aspects.\n\n\n## p. 455 (leaf n460)\n\nFirst: You say: the shape of the substance, when the Natures attach to it—whether singular or not singular—becomes a round thing; therefore it was necessary that our statement “the shape of every thing is round” [be accepted]; so know that. Then impose upon it [127] thereby the rest of the Natures, God willing.\nI have already explained and made clear, to him who understands, how to arrive at the science of the Balances and how the Natures ought to be composed upon the substance; and I now begin the mention of the testament.\nSince I have already expounded that, let us state what the cause of that was: I used to be much attached to my master—God’s blessings upon him—and I was devoted to invocations, especially those with which the philosophers used to invoke; and I used to present them to him, some of which he approved and some of which he would say: “All people invoke with this, yet there is no special property in it.” When I persisted with him, he taught me this invocation; it is of the genus of the philosophers’ invocation, rather it and those are one when recited together, yet he has a choice and additions in it. And he said to me: “The matter will not be perfected for you except by it; and in my opinion it will not be perfected for anyone who has read my books, especially, except by it—if he removes the image of the Devil from his heart, abandons obstinacy, and employs pure Islam, religion, and beautiful intention. As for so long as the Devil plays with him and causes him to slip by intent, nothing will benefit him; and that is because obstinacy is not only from the Devil alone, rather it is from the corruption of intention. So fear God, O this one, in your soul.”\n\n\n## p. 456 (leaf n461)\n\nAnd betake yourself to what I enjoin upon you, for — by the truth of my master — I praise you even if your affair is slow in coming to you. So do not despair of the spirit of God and of His deliverance, lest you be among those who wrong the Creator in His decree, mighty and majestic. And abandon your waiting in that wherein you are in need of learning it, for when deliverance comes to you you will regret what has passed from you and regret will avail you nothing.\nThis is the injunction: the first thing you do is that you purify yourself and pour upon yourself clean water in a clean place, then you don clean, pure garments that a menstruating woman does not touch; then you seek guidance from God a thousand times and say in your seeking of guidance: O God, I seek guidance from You in my intention, so make me steadfast and turn Satan away from me, for You have power over him and he has no power over You.\nSo when you have said that a thousand times, betake yourself to a clean, pure place and begin: you magnify God, recite the Praise and “Say: He is God, One” a hundred times, bow and prostrate; then you stand and pray the like of that; then you recite the testimony and salute. Then you recite in the second two rakʿas a hundred times “When the help of God comes and the victory”; and when you salute you repeat the like of the first two rakʿas and recite “Say: He is God, One” a hundred times; then you repeat two more with “When the help of God comes and the victory”; then you pray two further rakʿas, which complete the ten, and recite sura after sura; then you complete your prayer. And beware lest you speak to anyone during that or any occupation occupy you.\n\n\n## p. 457 (leaf n462)\n\nAnd the most fitting of places for you are the empty deserts so that no one at all may speak to you. Then sit and say, after extending your hands to God Most High: O God, I have extended them to You seeking Your good pleasure, and I ask You not to return them disappointed. And begin and say: O God, You are You, O He who is He, O He whose whatness is known only to Him, O God, You are the Creator of all, O God, You are the Creator of Intellect, O God, You [١٢٧] O God, You are the Bestower of the psychic Soul, O God, You are the Creator of the cause, O God, You are the Creator of the spirit, O God, You are before time and place and their Creator, O God, You are the Maker of creation by motion and rest and their Creator, O God, I have turned to You, so bestow upon the gift of the firm Intellect and my guidance in my path to the straight way. O God, by You—nothing is greater than You—illuminate my heart and clarify for me the path of intent toward Your good pleasure. O God, I have turned to You while my two souls contend: my psychic soul contends toward You, and my animal soul contends toward seeking the world. O God, in You—nothing is greater than You—O Maker of all, bless Muhammad Your servant and Your messenger and his family and his loving companions, and guide my psychic soul to what You know best of its desires from it, and convey my animal soul from You to the utmost of its hopes so that it may be with You. If it reaches that, then it has reached the world and the hereafter—truly that is easy for You. O God, I know that You fear no flaw or deficiency that would weaken You, by Your mercy and Your generosity.\n\n\n## p. 458 (leaf n463)\n\nGrant me what I have asked of Thee from this world and the next, O God, O Bestower of All, so make that in what pleases Thee and make it not in what angers Thee, O God, and make what Thou providest me \n٣ a help for fulfilling Thy rights and a witness for me with Thee, and make it not a witness against me nor a help for seeking what angers Thee from me, O God, O Creator of All, Thou hast created my heart, and Thou hast created Satan and cursed him as he deserves \n٦ and Thou hast commanded us to curse him, so turn him away from the heart of Thy friend, Thou, and help me in what I intend of such-and-such. And mention thy need in this place, and when thou hast finished all that thou desirest, rub thy cheeks upon the earth, then say in \n٩ thy alteration: My humble, perishable face has submitted to Thy mighty, enduring face, ten times, then sit a while and complete, so turn and magnify and recite the Praise and the sura “Have We not expanded for thee thy breast” and recite it in the second rakʿa, and when thou hast saluted say: O my master \n١٢ I have not been guided save by Thee nor known save by Thee nor aimed save at Thee and I aim not nor hope other than Thee, O God, squander not the rein of my aim and my hope in Thee, verily Thou squanderest not the reward of the doers of good, and verily Thou judgest and none judgeth against Thee, Thou hast \n١٥ promised the patient the best reward in Thee and for those patient in Thee for what Thou hast lightened from me and made me patient upon Thy trial, O God, Thou hast promised after hardship ease, O God, so grant the times of hardship and make them an increase in the times of ease, and make that a portion from \n١٨ this world and portions from the next, O God, verily my means to Thee is Muhammad and the elect of the people of his house, Amen Amen Amen\n\n\n## p. 459 (leaf n464)\n\nMy master said concerning that: God, mighty and majestic, is too generous that a man should entreat Him through His prophet and the people of His prophet and He send him back disappointed. So when that is completed, then verify in its track two and two-thirds dirhams and make it four parts, each part four daniqs, ٣ then whoever meets you of those who accept alms, give him a part, and likewise the second and the third and the fourth, for God, exalted, will praise you for the outcome in all your affairs and will drive Satan from your face, and intend what you resemble [١٢٨] for you will see ٦ in it right guidance. And by my master’s truth, this counsel has never reached a man without all my books reaching him, and by God, if he does not persist in study and reflection upon them and investigation of their causes, excessive fatigue will become clear. And the way, I have already informed you, if you abandon niggardliness in ٩ the matter of these books, O reader; so if you wish to follow it, and if not, then God is for us and for you with right guidance. And by my master’s truth, my books have never reached a man whom God has caused to lose them; rather he will have provision even if all people strive to deprive him of it, it will not be possible for them, ١٢ and indeed it is a wondrous sign + and its abandonment of what appears upon it + from the beginning of its affair, so know that, if God wills, and in Him is trust. And I have already informed you and indicated: beware of obstinacy, your affair will be praised and you will rejoice in your return and you will praise the affair of my speech and God will provide you that ١٥ as a good thing, if God wills.\n\n\n## p. 460 (leaf n465)\n\nWe say: When God, blessed and exalted, created the sphere and created in it these four elements which are fire, water, air and earth, and their origin was ٣. first that when the first elements mixed and each one reached its centre — and that after the transformation of the substance — fire reached the upper and its centre was there, and air reached fire because of the heat in it, so the moisture prevented it from reaching and mixing with it ٦. and it came to be below it and became in the middle, then water reached after that the lower and was at the farthest distance from fire at the extremity with a diameter equal to its distance according to the measure of opposites, and reached",
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