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    "name": "Small pieces from the Book of Properties"
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    "num": 1,
    "slug": "complete",
    "title": "Small pieces from the Book of Properties",
    "of": 1,
    "words": 7250,
    "text": "## p. 304 (leaf n309)\n\nThe caller to Yahya with that said to me: O my master, what have you regarding that? So I indicated to him cold water and pouring it upon her, for I had not seen her and did not know in that any cure for poisons or its cutting like that. ٣ Nothing cold benefited her, nor anything hot either, and that was because I had prepared her with hot salt and altered her legs. When the matter increased he asked me to see her, so I saw her dead, utterly devoid of strength. With me was some of this Elixir, so I gave her to drink of it, the weight of two grains, in pure oxymel, the amount of three ounces. By God and the truth of my master, her face became straight because of this slave-girl, for she returned to eating what she had been upon in less than half an hour of time. ٩ Yahya bent over a man, kissing her, so I said to him: O my brother, do not do it. He asked me the benefit of the medicine, so I said to him: Take what I have of it. But he did not do it. Then he took up the practice and study of the sciences and the like of that until he knew many things, ١٢ and his son Jaʿfar was more intelligent than he and more knowing. I had a slave-girl who ate yellow arsenic while she did not know the amount of an ounce, as she mentioned, so I found no medicine for her after I had left nothing of what benefits poisons.\n\n\n## p. 305 (leaf n310)\n\nexcept he treats her with it, then he gives her to drink from it the weight of one grain with honey and water, and it reaches her interior until she casts it forth entirely and stands upon her first condition. ٣ And it repels all poisons, and it is proper that there be given to drink from it, in all of them, the weight of three grains in cold things with honey and honey-water and its drink and what follows its course, and in hot things with the cold, and let it be from the waters of legumes and the like of that. ٦ So know it and do not exceed it. And one day I was going out from a house heading to the abode of my master Jaʿfar, may the blessings of God be upon him, when suddenly there was a man whose entire right side had swollen and turned green until it became like chard, not by way of example but in reality, and the blueness had already appeared from it in places. ٩ So I asked about his condition and it was said to me: a viper bit him just now and this befell him. So I gave him to drink the weight of two grains with force in a drink of cold water only, because I feared he would perish quickly. ١٢ By God the Almighty, I saw his green and blue color had already changed from what they were to the color of his body. Then that swelling shrank until nothing of it remained at all, and he spoke and stood and departed sound, no malady in him. And it would have been obligatory that he be given to drink with honey and what follows its course, or that he be fed with raisins and hazelnut. ١٥\n\n\n## p. 306 (leaf n311)\n\nAnd he did not proceed in his manner, but the matter was swifter than that, so God granted him his soul thereby speedily.\n\nFrom the Tenth Treatise ٣\n\n(٠)\n\nHe invited me one day in the month of Ramadan, on its seventh day — Jaʿfar ibn Yahya, with Yahya with us and Khalid with us, brother of Jaʿfar. So we stayed with him to purchase something of the Names; then that finished and we began to mention the properties in these Elements in particular, and we reached the properties of the oil. Jaʿfar said: I saw something of it in iron, and that is that I took from it a rod, we softened it for its softness, and we dipped it in it seventy times, and silver came out. Khalid said: I saw something of it in brass, and that is that I dissolved in the oil something of the whey and alum; then I heated the copper and dipped it in it one hundred and twenty times; then I cast it the last time and poured it into the oil alone, and white silver came out, finer.\n\n\n## p. 307 (leaf n312)\n\nFrom every silver. And Yahya said: I saw from it in the silver a wonder, and that is that I heated the silver and dipped it in the oil, and every time it passed in ten times — I mean ten regimens — I mixed every ten of the silver with three of the copper (Venus) and all of it became ٣ pure silver without doubt in it. Then they turned to me, and that is because I had said nothing, so they said: All of that is with you and you know it, O Abu Musa, so what did you see in it, tell us! So I said to Yahya: What was the completion of your operation with your love for it and your dipping it in the oil? ٦ He said: Yes, and when I reached seventy times, every time I heated it ten regimens and mixed it with three of the copper (Venus) it all became silver according to that which had already been mixed at first, until the copper (Venus) also tinctures with the silver (Luna) and is stripped of the copper-nature ٩ entirely. This is what I saw. So I said to him: And after that? He said to me: When it exceeded one hundred, every ten regimens tinctured twice as much of the copper (Venus) so that it became by it pure white silver (Luna) also, then up to one hundred and fifty times, and here I stopped ١٢ and was content with it. Bring it, O servant. And he called for a flask (phial) and it was clothed in the consistency of silver (Luna).\n\n\n## p. 308 (leaf n313)\n\nBut it is soft, smooth, fresh and fine, and passes over every silver. So I said to him: So every ten heatings at this time tincture three times their like, and likewise up to three hundred; and when it reaches three hundred, then each one tinctures three times its like. And when it exceeds three hundred, ٣ every time you heat it and quench it in the oil it tinctures its like, and likewise up to four hundred times; then it becomes mature and turns into a precious Elixir. He said: And when it reaches five hundred with it? I said: ٦ Do it. Then they turned to me and said: Increase us in it besides this. I said: Yes, and with honour; if you do that equally with gold it reaches this degree with it, and it is strange. So they asked me about the cause and wondered at it; then they said: If we do this with the oil ٩ alone, without fire and tincture, then it is not intended in the oil and the gold that the gold should tincture it? I said: God forbid. So they asked me about the reason in that, and they began to describe my excellence and that this is among the wonders. I said: The agent cause ١٢ in iron and copper and silver of this action is that the oil imparts softness to these bodies, and in them is of the tinctures what is hidden and latent; and when they become soft their tinctures spread and tincture other bodies.\n\n\n## p. 309 (leaf n314)\n\nI was one day with Ishaq b. Musa b. Yaqtin and with him was a virtuous man of the sanʿa-workers the like of whom I had not seen among those seeking this sanʿa. We reached this place in the discussion until we recalled that a thing is worked by this ʿamal all at once. He said to me: O my master, you know that this, according to the philosophers and in their outward doctrine, is impossible—that a thing of the nuhasiyya or other should be converted to the dhahabiyya without the fiddiyya and then become the dhahabiyya. So I said: Do you know why that is, O my brother? He said: No, by God! So I said: It is impossible in their view, in every intellect, in the first matter, that the first should become the third without being resolved in the second, for all ajsad are below dhahab in the awzan at first—he said: Yes—then fidda is nearer to dhahab than all the ajsad. He said: Yes. So I said to him: They also held that it is impossible for a jasad of them to be in the hadd of dhahab without becoming fidda, because the mithal of dhahab is ten of number and the mithal of fidda is nine and the mithal of the ajsad is from eight to one; so it is impossible that this hisab or other reach ten without reaching nine. So know that.\n\n\n## p. 310 (leaf n315)\n\nWhen that was not disclosed to him he said: Yes, and it is indeed among the most wondrous of statements. How then, O my master, does this which we have mentioned become true, when truth cannot exist in two contradictory states? ٣ She said to him: You were, in my view, praiseworthy from the first of your affair until this time, as though you had dissolved in the chapter of theoretical consideration. He said: Yes, O my master, I ask you to teach me how that is. She said: Yes; if you had employed what I spoke of to you an hour before this time here, you would have attained the Way. There had passed between us before this a discourse on the tincturing, and he excelled in it. He said: And what is that, O my master? She said: Is it not that some things reach the tincturing while you know nothing of it and have not heard of it? He said: Enough for me; you yourself repeat the question. She said: It reaches, in the regimen, the ninth, yet we do not see it, so it is necessary that we contemplate that, until, when the gold that has been subjected to the regimen reaches the state of silver in the tincturing, it tinctures copper into silver. ١٢ He said: You have spoken truly.\n\n\n## p. 311 (leaf n316)\n\nHow shall knowledge be perfected for thee when thou hast not read the Book of the Result, wherein is naught of all things but it is contained? By God, my master rebuked me concerning ٣ its composition and said: By God, O Jabir, were it not that I know this knowledge is taken only by him who is worthy of it, and did I know with certain knowledge that it is a royal possession, I would have commanded thee to destroy this book. From the world shalt thou learn what I have disclosed to men therein? If thou reach it not, then seek it ٦, for it shall bring forth for thee all the obscurities of my books, all the science of the Balance, and all the benefits of the Wisdom; and by it thou shalt become—by the truth of my master, upon whom be peace—one of the folk of the Work, knowing the corrupt from the sound, and peace.\nFrom the nineteenth treatise ()\n١ By the truth of God and the truth of my master, the blessings of God be upon him, I have permitted thee in ١٢ this treatise what I have not permitted in many of my books in any place, since it is my way\n\n\n## p. 312 (leaf n317)\n\nExplanation of the knowledge and its dispersion and its tearing-apart in the numerous places, and peace. It does not harm, after we have already defined the Elements from which the Work comes, that we add how the face of the Work is in them, so that the discourse and the book may be complete thereby, since we have become active to remove the grief and the blindness from all people, and upon God is reliance in all matters. My master used to say to me often: Do, O Jabir, whatever you wish and disclose the knowledge however you wish, for none shall take it except its worthy recipient by right, and peace. These determinations we have already specified with twenty small parts known as the Riyad; whoever possesses discernment and seeks that, he shall bring forth from it what he loves. By the right of my master, I was niggardly in mentioning these books in the Book of the Inmost Secret, and it is the noblest of my books. These Riyad books gather all the solutions and gather...\n\n\n## p. 313 (leaf n318)\n\nAll the dissolutions and the gathering of all the calcinations and the sublimations and all the waxings. And the meaning of “all” is the gathering of the modes that are in them, because quicksilver does not emit, for example, what arsenic emits, nor does silver emit what quicksilver emits ٣ nor arsenic. And these books also gather all the modes of the approximations for these Spirits and Souls and the volatilisations and alterations of the Bodies and their sublimations until they become Spirits. And perhaps there are in them other things from the greater sciences that ٦ one is stingy in mentioning them lest the hearer desire them and seek them, so that by his seeking them his finding of them occurs, and by his finding of them he reaches what is in them; for these books—by my lord!—are the noblest books in this science ٩. From the Twentieth Book (٥) And after that we need to relate things of the matters of time and what I have seen of the rarities of the operations and the treatment for that, for error in it is abundant ١٢.\n\n\n## p. 314 (leaf n319)\n\nSo inform him. That is because I was driven to a time in which the kings and all the people were exceedingly abundant, and the seekers of this Work were exceedingly numerous, and I saw not among them any goodness of regimen, let alone the operations and the Elixirs, on the part of their verified ones. And I found folk who were deceivers and deceived, so I pitied them all and I wrought for them what I have already related in bare form in the opening of my Book of Mercy. And I wrought for them my book which I named The Desire, wherein I teach the people all the lesser work and the greater in all the operations of the inward Elixirs and the outward; and I guarantee in that, that whoso performs what I say in its procedure — I mean for that operation — will never err at all, nor is it possible that error befall him in that, in any manner or cause. Then my master (God’s blessings upon him) said to me: O Jabir, thou hast indeed deserved from God — exalted and mighty is He — perfect mercy and satisfaction by that with which thou hast uncovered for the people these calamities and afflictions and maladies, and hast restored to them their intellects and preserved their properties. So I said: The glory and the excellence and the thanks belong to my master, and through him I learned what I learned and reached what I reached.\n\n\n## p. 315 (leaf n320)\n\nThis—and by my master’s truth—and its like is the cause of the disclosure of the difficult sciences in the world and the approximation of the long times therein; and in that is a sufficient announcement for the people of understanding. So if you are a human being, you will know what the benefit of that is and you will be eager to collect these our books and take from them the knowledge of the Prophet and ʿAli and my master and what is between them of the offspring, transmitted by transmission from what was and what is and what will be thereafter until the Hour rises. And with that my master commanded me to speak in these hundred and forty-four books. For Homer the poet has already mentioned that the quaternary [groups] possessing the three faces are among the mothers of knowledge; so he indicated that the marvellous things emerge only from four in three, so they become twelve; then they are multiplied by themselves, so they become one hundred and forty-four; so it is the root in that case, and division and multiplication and algebra and equation—know that. And upon you is geometry; you will reach [it].\n\n\n## p. 316 (leaf n321)\n\nto whatever you love of these sciences. And this is among the most special of the special properties that\nyou have understood, and peace.\n(5)\nFrom the twenty-fourth book\nKnow that quicksilver kills the pearl, binds it and hardens it. And this is among the mothers\nand the grains of the hearts—may God be pleased with my master—for whenever such\nproperties passed by him he would say: O Jabir, these are the grains of the hearts. It is not fitting for you, when you look\ninto these our books, except that you collect them together with whatever of their arts is added to them, and peace.\nAnd because a portion of speech concerning the things that dissolve\nhas already passed from us, it is not harmful that we add to this book something of speech concerning the waters that\ncongeal so that they become like the contrary and opposite to those things that dissolve, since they are at\nthe utmost distance. And he who knows knowledge completely and knows all its branches and speaks concerning its principles\nand discloses them and mentions their states that exist and those that annul them and oppose them, he is\n\n\n## p. 317 (leaf n322)\n\nThe skilled, expert, erudite, knowledgeable one who has already given you sincere advice in the teaching, and act upon the notion that this is a claim—accept the proof of the Intellect regarding it. Among the properties is that the time of these books reaching you—if ٣ it draws near, then the time which we promised you in the books containing the prophetic chapters has drawn near. Know that: “Do not despair of the spirit of God; indeed none despair of the spirit of God except the people of the unbelievers.” And look, O my brother, and beware of despair, ٦ lest it carry off your life-span and your property; for by God, I have nothing in these books save their composition, while the rest is the knowledge of the Prophet—God bless him and grant him peace. I have already heard what the Prophet—God bless him and grant him peace—said concerning despair, and I warn you against reaching this state so that you regret it at a time ٩ when regret will not avail you; God knows your affair best. Upon us lies only the effort in speech, while upon you lies acceptance from us; if you accept, you will not regret it. By the right of my master—upon him be peace—if you do not accept, you will assuredly be like the rabble of the common, base, hostile folk; may God curse them more ١٢ than He has already cursed them. It is incumbent upon you to weary yourself in the Book of the Abode and the Hidden Knowledge.\n\n\n## p. 318 (leaf n323)\n\nAnd the Book of Temperament and the Fifth Nature and the Hidden Secret. So by the truth of my master—may the prayers of God be upon him—this is the foundation of my books in all the sciences. As for the seven bodies ٣ from the Book of Abi Qalamun—sufficient for you with it—and the rest of the books with what is specific to them, and the consideration in the books of what we have already mentioned in the Book of Hidden Knowledge, so beware, beware lest you accept other than it, for we only strike the like with the like in the places for the interpretation of a book ٦ from a book in a question that occurs to us or something like that. For the foundations of these books are only that we mention in each book a property belonging to all of them that is not in another of the books, and some of them explain others; if you investigate that you will find it. And it is necessary ٩ that you master the titles of the books, for they are among the great benefits. And it is necessary that the seeker of the Balance know that whoever gathers the letters of the titles of these my books on the Balances and their cognomens and arranges them according to what we taught you in the teaching of the letters, brings forth—by the truth of my master, may the prayers of God be upon him—from them the knowledge of the Greatest, Nearest Gate according to ١٢ the way of the Balance. Is not this among the great properties and the precious benefits?\n\n\n## p. 319 (leaf n324)\n\nKnow this and make your affair according to it. Had I mentioned in this epistle nothing but this benefit, it would have been sufficient and ample therein.\n\nFrom the thirty-second epistles\n\nKnow that I warn you against error and oversight, for just as the repeated hearing of the Work and the passage of doubts concerning it over the ears of its learner make that stronger in its power and firmer for it and greater in its disposition—since the sciences issue only through the Intellect and analogy occurs only through the power of knowledge, and the power of knowledge occurs only through much exercise in the principles of that Work. We have already made this clear to you in these books and in others of the books which we have composed and explained sufficiently and adequately.\n\nBeware, my brother, of opposing what we have said in the Book of the Hidden Knowledge and have arranged therein.\n\n\n## p. 320 (leaf n325)\n\nTo you therein of the operations if it falls to you. And also, if you are our brother then yes, but if you are not our brother then no. And beware of working with that, for you only deceive yourself ٣ and obtain no benefit from that. And incumbent upon you is what occurred in your mind and what you chose, for that which we stored for our brother will only be for him. So know that and work by it, you will reach what you love, if God Exalted wills. As for our brother, if he is by the signs that ٦ we described then he is he. And if there is in them something that alters little or much then he is he also, but the signs we described in him are more than what are not in him. So know that and work by it, you will reach what you love by the power of God and His help. And God ٩ has revealed to you and explained and clarified and made plain, and I did not symbolise but lengthened it. So whoever has experience in seeking and researching and taking the time, may God make us and you reach the stations of the righteous by His grace and generosity, indeed He is powerful over all things.\n\n\n## p. 321 (leaf n326)\n\nAs for the rare water without which almost all the Works can scarcely do, it is the water of the blue milk. Perform it according to what we have explained in the Hidden Science and you will attain what you desire. ٣ It is a tincturing, separating water if you intend that thereby, and it is a coagulating, congealing water; and likewise it is a water that proceeds in the manner of the single roots, and likewise the water of alum and soap. By the single ones I mean the hot, the cold, the dry and the moist. So if you do not know what these perform, read their definitions and you will attain thereby what you desire. ٦ We have already explained their definitions in more than one place, the best of them being the Book of Definitions among the collection of the books known as the Balances. Seek it, investigate it, and beware of abandoning the consideration of it for a single hour; for if you know what is in it, there will accrue to you most of the science of philosophy, and in it are many precious and special benefits from the science of the Work and philosophy.\n\n\n## p. 322 (leaf n327)\n\nAnd the science of the Natures. And upon you is the Book of the Balance, and upon you is the Book of the Regimens from the Hundred and Twelve, and upon you is the Book of the Small Regimens, and study the Third Book of the Regimens of ours known as the Regimens of Him Who Has No Equal, from the science of the inward and outward, the manner of bringing near the Work, and upon you is the Book of the Roots from other than the Hundred and Forty-Four Books, for in them is the Work without symbol in the Stones ٦ in particular and it is, by God, among the precious books and in it is more than one chapter. And God, I have performed it with my hand and my intellect before, and I have inquired into it until it became sound and I tested it so it proved true. Injury is incumbent upon you if you fall short in seeking it, and look at what is in it, you will find it wondrous, if God wills. We have already come to several foundations without which there is no escape in the Seventy ٩ and in others among our books that follow the course of the Seventy, so let it now be its cutting-off and its end, if God wills, and peace.\n\n\n## p. 323 (leaf n328)\n\nAnd by the truth of my Creator and my master, the blessings of God be upon him, I have not left a single one of these sentences, nor of others which I have already treated in a place among my books, save that I have explained it with a clear explanation in places among my books; so seek it out, you will arrive from it at ٣ what you desire, and peace. And if you wish to know the soundness of that, then upon you is the Book of the Hasil in particular, for it is the end of our books in knowledge, and there is no escape for you from these knowledges which we have set before you, all of them without exception, and likewise from the Book of the Hasil, because there is no ٦ operation except by a knowledge preceding it. So know that and operate upon it, and beware of neglecting it, for if you are remiss in it you will regret a regret that encompasses life; and that is because if you waste your time it will not be possible for you every day to perform the operation and the trial so as to see the right guidance in what ٩ we say to you. But toil first with a single toil, and gather and observe and know, then\n\n\n## p. 324 (leaf n329)\n\nWork, for by my master you shall not arrive at first then arrive at what you desire. This is in the knowledge which is indispensable. So when you have considered that and mastered it and perfected it, turn to the Books ٣\nAs for the Seventy, they are excellent and the best of them are from the Forty to the Sixty\nAs for the Hundred and Twelve, the Books among them are collected in one book\n٦ There is no avoiding it for the seeker of the Work; it is called the Book of Abstracts. For we have abstracted in it all the Books that we mentioned in the Hundred and Twelve Books, and the total of the Books in it is five thousand Books. And it is the foundation of our Hundred and Twelve Books, and by it the Books of the Hundred and Twelve Books are completed and corrected. So seek it and work by what is in it, for it is at the utmost of beauty and nobility for whoever knows in order to work from it; but for whoever is ignorant, it is hardship and toil and regret. Seek and investigate; may God grant us and you our desires ٩\n١٢ by His will and power, for He is Generous, Bountiful, so He inclines to what He wills\nAs for the Books of great benefit to the man, the Books of the Balances, their foundation is as\n\n\n## p. 325 (leaf n330)\n\nWe have already said that there are twelve books in it, save for the best of them, and there is nothing in them to be selected because all of them are indispensable for the reader in some manner of manners and for some reason of reasons, and they are the supreme foundation in all the sciences. And among its concealments is the Book of the Hidden Science ٣ the most secret of books in knowledge and in operation, in whatsoever manner you wish: if you wish the regimens, and if you wish by the path of the Balance, and if you desire knowledge of all that is needed for it. And among them are the twenty comprehensive books, for they are of that which neither scholar nor ignorant can dispense with, nor ٦ anyone who seeks this Work nor anyone who does not seek it, save that he look into them and they be in his possession, for they gather the science of the Work clearly and near at hand, and operation plain and manifest, and it is twenty books. And after that, by God, I do not know what is best of them to single out by description and mention, one thing rather than another, for all of them, by God, are of that which man needs with urgent need, because they gather every art of the sciences: if you wish medicine, astronomy, the Work, demands, knowledge, geometry, incantations, regimens, properties ١٢ and diversions and recreation and all kinds of the sciences and the adab-literatures and the like of that. As for our other books, then [they are] the twenty, the thirty, and the forty.\n\n\n## p. 326 (leaf n331)\n\nAnd the seventeen and the four and the four and the four and the four and the One and the One and the One. And these the One >and< the One are the Book of the King and the Book of Knowledge and the Book of the United and the Book of the Garden and the like of that. And the second the Stones. And the third from the Imamate. ٣ For the compiler of all that or what is fitting from it is our brother. And I mention that the time which we used to promise thee with shall come to thee by the power of God and His might and His help and His will, if God wills. And the compiler of these sciences shall be the best of men, for if ٦ there be to him after that or before it a lesson of what is ours from the remainder of the books which are ours and what belongs to the philosophers, that shall be with me like Socrates only. So act upon that and teach it; thou shalt reach from it to thy world speedily, if God the Exalted wills. ٩ And this treatise for these chapters we have summed it up, and in it is the property of the arrival of man at his desired object with ease, since in the knowledge of the places in which the sciences are there are beneficial properties for the seeker. May God grant us and thee success to right guidance by His grace and His generosity. ١٢ And since we have come to our object of desire, let it now be its end. The thirty-third treatise is finished, by the praise of God and His help.\n\n\n## p. 327 (leaf n332)\n\nWe have already made clear, from these chapters which concern bodies in particular, how they come to be, and from the Spirits how they come to be, and from the composite bodies how they come to be.\n٣ In the Book of the Abstracts, from the one hundred and twelve, there are many rare and wondrous things. ٣\nSome of them are also composite; therefore it is necessary to extract all the minor chapters from there.\nYou have no book like it for solving all the difficult symbols, if you desire that.\n٦ The solving of the symbols in it follows the method of the chapters, for we mention in it five thousand ٦\nchapters of operation, apart from the knowledge; it is a large book and is one of the mother-books of ours which no one may ignore. So know all that we have mentioned, if God the Mighty and Glorious wills.\nFrom the seventy-second chapter ()\n٩\nIn the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to God alone, and His blessings upon our master Muhammad the Prophet and his family, and peace. Know, after that, that the Elixir is completed for him who has perfected knowledge in a single day.\n\n\n## p. 328 (leaf n333)\n\none, and he will not be moderate in a month, nor be brief in a year, nor before what is apparent of the books in twenty years. And he who has come to know, the Greatest Elixir will be completed for him in one day from all these books, and he will know what is in them and extract their totality and know their meanings, and it will not be completed — by the truth of my master — except thus. And he who is moderate in them is he who reads it alone and turns to things from its chapters after his examination of them in their entirety, and this — by the truth of my master — is among the most special of the special properties which is indispensable for him. And if he does not examine all of it, nothing will be completed for him, nor for whomever was among the most perspicacious of people and counted them. And we have perfected it in our book known as the Hidden Science, and in it are the rarities of the sciences, and it is in reality the Hidden Science, and peace. And were it not that in my mention of the books — by the truth of my master — there is something of the special properties, I would not have mentioned them. As for him who is brief, then he who reads them all and turns from them to one science, even if it were in one day it would be completed for him in less than a year due to the deficiency of his knowledge. And as for in twenty, then it is death, and peace. For if these books are assembled, it is possible for the one studying them three times, according to what I describe, and all of that — by the truth of my Creator and my master — is among the special properties.\n\n\n## p. 329 (leaf n334)\n\nAs for the first time, let him correct it and make clear to him what is in it of its expressions. And as for the second, let him study it and bring forth what is beneath it. And as for the third, let him gather the meanings to their places and what is fitting to them of the meanings and the arts so that he may reach from it to the desired end from it. And what is lacking of the Book of the House in these books, and what is lacking of the Book of the Observatories in these books, and what is lacking of the Books of the Four Stones according to the opinion of Balinas, and what is lacking of the Book of Tasrif and the Balance from the mothers of the books. So when he knows what is in all these books, nay when our elder brother has read them three times, it will convey him — and the truth of my master — to above what he desires and there will be excess from that also, and the matter of reading them and unloosing them will be difficult for a long time, then the way will be opened in them by the power of God and His strength. And there is no knowledge with me and no benefit and no truth and no profit for him who has not collected these hundred books and the forty-four books in the science of the Balance. And the truth of my master, I have not named this number except in two places from these my books and another place encoded by way of calculation, and you will know that when you have looked into it. And know that among its properties...\n\n\n## p. 330 (leaf n335)\n\nThat knowledge of them is not perfected save for one who gathers them, and nothing of them reaches [?] save one who gathers them. ٣ And among their mighty prophetic properties is that these books, I mean the Books of the Balance, one hundred books and some forty books, never come together with one who examines them and knows their benefits save our brother whom we have mentioned and specified in all these our books, I mean the Books of the Balance, and in other than the Books of the Balance from the other books. For we have indeed mentioned this our brother. And these states are among the greatest knowledge of the properties, and peace. ٦ ٩ And I know that they will not agree with you at this time, but when you know what is in them of all the sciences and the knowledge of this place becomes difficult for you and the arrival at it, it will agree with you to the utmost agreement. And this occurs only in the souls of people from reckoning. ١٢ And that is because they suppose that knowledge is necessarily what they must know when they read it or look into it and that there will be in it an indication of what is in it of knowledge, and all this is ignorance. Do you see that if someone were to say that the Stone of the Philosophers is quicksilver and sulphur, is it not...\n\n\n## p. 331 (leaf n336)\n\nMany souls of men were aspiring to it and inclining toward it, while they knew not what lies beneath it of truth and falsehood? So in the judgment of speculation there must be “yes,” since that is necessary. Likewise these things which we inform you of—you know not whether they are true or false. Just as ٣ our saying “quicksilver and sulphur” is the Stone of the philosophers for the knowledge of the Work, we need to know the secret of what lies beneath it so that it may be completed and disclosed; likewise what we say concerning these things ٦ is disclosed, verified, and agreed upon by you only when you have seen that, it has become manifest to you, and you have known ٩ what lies beneath it. And truly, my master, if I do not add to what I say and you accept it, your life will be cast away and will perish in vain. Our books are not perfected unless our principle in them is that you gather them ١٢ first, then read them three times, for they belong to the great properties which have no like, and you gather their principles, their judgments, and their sections indicating their separate and shared meanings, and the analogical and non-analogical meanings in each one of the sciences, and you add what is in each book of them to what is in the other of that meaning, until ١٢ nothing of them remains except that you have come upon it. It may be permissible that in some of the books\n\n\n## p. 332 (leaf n337)\n\nTwo meanings and three and fewer and more, so that the book is built upon one meaning in which nothing else shares; thus let each one be added to its like until it is complete for you — and truly, my master — what you intended, and peace. Among the properties which are conventional not natural is that the Book of the Hidden Science composes all these books. Among them is that the Book of the Balance and the Book of the Dispersion are contrary in meaning to the Book of the Descent and the Book of the Exposition and the Book of the Result, contrary to the Books of the Four Stones according to the opinion of Balinas and the like of that among these books; some of them resolve the doubt of others and disclose it. When the doubts are disclosed, nothing whatever of the inquiries remains in the souls and the intellects. This does not occur except by the clear exposition and the establishment of the demonstration which is not dissolved for all, and the establishment of the demonstration occurs only by the exposition. That is not from the act of any one of mankind, but rather it is from the acts of the prophets. Thus what we have said has been established by what we have made plain and set forth in another place, that it is true; so know that, and make your affair according to it toward what you desire, if God most high wills.\n\n\n## p. 333 (leaf n338)\n\nIn the name of God the Merciful the Compassionate. Praise be to God Lord of the Worlds and His blessings upon the best of His creation Muhammad the Chosen and his family and peace.\nWe have written, O my brother, in these our books of ours several books on numerous arts, ٣ each art of them [٢٤٧] standing by itself. Some of them contain disputes and doubts which we have not disclosed in their places, and some of them we have disclosed and clarified. It is necessary that you believe that the benefit in these ancient books is great. Among them firstly the sciences of talismans, ٦ secondly the sciences of the Work, thirdly the sciences of the quests, and after the sciences of the quests the indication concerning our two brothers. And if you were to say: “Verily this last section is the greatest of them,” you would be truthful. And we need to indicate in this part of this book concerning our two brothers ٩ — we — and to give most of their descriptions. So we say, and in God is the seeking of aid:",
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