Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Jabirian Corpus·Book of the Arena of the Intellect·Book of the Arena of the Intellect

p. 207 (leaf n212)

Coldness; the fine belongs to the category of dryness, and the coarse belongs to the category of moistness. The difference between them is shown from the aspect that the specific occurs only through the singulars and the general occurs only through the compounds, so understand that. There is great knowledge in it and we add ٣ to its explanation so that he who has no acquaintance may know and it may be made easy also for the learned, for verification in this discourse [follows]. We give first as example a distance ٦ in which there is nothing. Then we imagine that a substance has taken on a form, so that a certain shape has come to be in it, and this shape is always round, nothing else. Then mixture attaches to one of the singular Natures; if it attaches to Heat it gives it what we have described of heat. Length belongs to the category ٩ of Heat only because it is drawn upward, and every shape, when attraction in a certain direction befalls it, yields from the form according to what it has been shaped by, like kneaded clay or flour or natif and the like. Likewise the form of the substance ١٢ that is first rolled out. Know that; we have treated it fully in the Book of the Balance. If it attaches to Coldness the attraction is downward, since it is bearing it, so the shape becomes short; likewise if it clings to the moist and the dry. When all the Natures have mixed ١٥ in it and it has become for them a personal bearer, then it necessarily follows that there should be

p. 208 (leaf n213)

on two divisions: either fixed upon that with which the composition began, or the opposite of that equally. As for if it is upon that with which it was first composed, there is no more knowledge in that than what has preceded; ٣ but as for the second which opposes it, in it is the aspect of knowledge and speculation. That is because when the substance takes form after the first distillation and clings to one of the elements with a clinging that may be weak — to the extent we have mentioned at the beginning of our Book of the Elite — and that occurs either by the Soul’s choice of that, or by a transgression from it, or what resembles that, then when it emerges from the world of one element to the other it takes from it stronger than what it took from the other; then it continues thus until it takes by its power from the four worlds. So when it has taken that, what it has taken from the nature in the second impulse is stronger than what it took from the first; ٩ and that which was in it first becomes necessary to the diameter, and the second opposite becomes necessary to the circumference. Likewise the statement concerning the other two: either its power is dominant at the beginning so that the judgment is upon it, or the contrary of that. When that has become clear and the discourse is completed ١٢ concerning it, we say regarding what necessarily follows from its concomitants: it is necessary first to conceive how the Natures mix with the bodies. So we say: as for their world and their state, from your diameter to their diameters, ١٥ and the distance and its nearness, we have already treated exhaustively.

p. 209 (leaf n214)

their mingling. And we shall mention here the very image, either as a collection of what we have dispersed in those books, or as that which brings near the meanings of what we have set forth. For we say: the reader of this our book, if he only loves to look into it for near benefit and not for seeking knowledge, then this our book is free of that at the outset. And if he loves knowledge and the principles of the Work and arrival at precious benefits, then in this our book also that is not at the outset. And by "at the outset" is meant that it is not necessary for the learner to read this our book first before he reads our books before it from this knowledge. And we have named them and described them and the ordering of their study and their teaching in our book known as the Small Logic, the abridged. And as for him who desires pure benefit, then we have a book known as the Book of the Benefit of the Balances, and it is part of the sum of these books, and we have named it the Superlatives because of the benefits and proofs it contains concerning the soundness of the Balances; what it contains is convincing and there is no benefit in it other than that. And it is proper that he who reads the Book of the Superlatives should do so after studying all these our books. But as for him who desires knowledge of the principles of the Balances and their branches and knowledge of the Work in the abstract, upon him is the Book of the System and my two Books of the Balances and the Book of the Product and the Book of the Definitions and the Book of the Eye. And let him continue their study night and day under a skilled master and upon himself if he be knowledgeable.

p. 210 (leaf n215)

with logic and geometry and many sciences from the properties of philosophy, for he will not need besides them anything else. And let him add to that, if he wishes to complete the science of the Balance, the book of al-Bughya wa-l-Muttaʿa, for the two of them will furnish him with the science of the Balances of talismans and the rest of the occult sciences. And if he desires the science of medicine, then upon him is the book of medicine. And if he desires the science of the influence of the genera, then the six which we have already mentioned before these books. And if he desires the science of the Balances of the rest of things, then upon him is the Sun and the Moon from these books. And every thing from these sciences we have already set forth for you * its books. So act according to what you desire from them, and peace. And since we have given these conditions, there is no harm that we mention here after that * what we need. And since it has become clear that benefit is the object from these books and that what veils it from you in the near approach is that, then it is necessary that you know that if you do not look you will not arrive. And it is necessary that you know that your looking ought to be by means of what we have taught you in the book of logic, for there is no path to arrival at these sciences and their reality except from here alone, and there is no arrival at this science except from these books or that there be in you what is in us. And let us take up what we began with concerning the form of the elements and the substance. And there has already preceded for us before this our book instruction to you in the worlds what suffices therein, and that is in the First.

p. 211 (leaf n216)

And the second and what follows it and precedes it. Our discourse in this book is from the world of the Soul, since we have already fully treated what comes after that. So when it has become clear that the Soul cleaves to the body only by reason of desire, as we have mentioned, or otherwise, and that in it is the power of Intellect and ignorance, it becomes possible for one present ٣ to look upon the body and touch it, whereas at first it was contrary to that, while now it is a visible thing possessing colour, and not like the colours that are principles; rather it is a colour inclining toward whiteness and the colour of the sun, which is a slight yellowness. And that which is generated from the Soul ٦ and the body is not an accident in it but rather a substance. And that passes away with the passing away of the substance of the body and the Soul; thus it has been established and is necessary that it is not an accident. We have already fully treated the form of that which possesses substance and accident in our Book of the Demonstration, and it is also ٩ found in the Book of the Balance. Then it passes into a world that is other than the world of the Soul and the body, and from this world it acquires the elements upon its arrival at this place. It is a void according to the statement of some, while others have said: a plenum. And it is the world of the elements, since ١٢ nothing departs from it save after having acquired the elements. This is clear to one who desires to distinguish between that, and we have already established it in the Book of the Desire and the End as well. So when it has passed into this difference according to the longing of the Soul for one of the elements, the first of the Natures that it takes is either that it is desirous of heat, then heat, or of cold, then cold.

p. 212 (leaf n217)

or moisture then moisture, or dryness then dryness. For the relation of the origin of the Balances and their being for the overflowing of the Soul to the Elements, it was necessary that every existent

٣possessing Soul, its cause is in them.
Let us liken first that the refined substance took by its longing to the world of Heat and took a certain portion, and the taking of this portion is as I describe. Like that

٦we had kneaded dough in vinegar or vinegar or honey or other than that, for it takes with all its power
from it. And this is necessary for that if the Soul were not choosing what it does, then it has been invalidated that that is as we had defined it in that it takes according to its power since the Soul was

٩choosing, acting. Let us liken first that the Soul had chosen first that it take
with the most abundant of portions and that is according to its power. Then it went out from the world of Heat to the void which is between it and the world of Dryness—and the statement concerning this void is as we had previously

١٢described it before—so if the longing of the Soul were toward it, it entered into it, and if not, it passed it by
and entered into the world of Coldness after its entering into the world of the void. Let us liken first that the Soul after its going out from the world of the void after Heat longed and so entered into

١٥the world of Dryness and took also according to its power. And let the learner liken to that that the power
of the substance and the Soul in its taking from this world is weaker than what it was with first since

p. 213 (leaf n218)

The proposition + was only after taking the surplus from the world of heat. And the example of that is that you extracted that paste from honey or from the thing in which you steeped it, then you cast it into pounded crushed corundum and it took from it by measure after it ٣ had dried. Then indeed * that continues to melt from world to world until its sediment comes out to us. We have now completed these principles. It is necessary that the compound be heat, dryness, coldness, moisture ٦ or B or J or D or other than that from the farthest of the four degrees or the nearest of them. And it is permissible that it be heat B coldness J dryness D moisture. And it is permissible that the compound be B heat, coldness J moisture D dryness, or D heat B dryness J ٩ coldness, moisture. Then likewise from increase and decrease according to that desire and longing which we have set forth first. So this desire is that upon which the Balance must fall or the measure of what the substance can bear from each of these worlds. And the first ١٢ is the root of the second, therefore it is invalidated that the second be, and we have already come to these causes. So the way to the knowledge of the Balance is taken from the Book of the Result, and the root of the Result is taken from the Balance and its brothers from what we have already set forth of the six books, and likewise logic ١٥ [K K], and what makes it clear is logic and the master. And we have related the manner of instruction in

p. 214 (leaf n219)

Our book known as Ustuqus al-uss, and it is the first of our one hundred and twelve books, and that the result of what we have delimited in it is what we have delimited of the principles of the science of the Balances on the side of ٣ disposition, analogy and proximate instruction. And since we have already exhausted that in the books that preceded it, there have remained for us in the spelling other things which are indispensable for whoever works upon the book of the Result from them, and in them ٦ is a wide domain for the Intellect until it is attained for him, and therefore we have entitled this our book the Book of the Domain of the Intellect. So let us now speak concerning that according to what its remainder indicates, if God the Exalted, He alone, the Mighty, wills.

٩The first figures are a b j d and they are the first degree and they are in the station of what the mangonel has taken with the fullest appetite and according to its strength. Then the second station and it is h w z h and it is beneath that in strength and measure and the like of it is like what has already been taken ١٢ after the taking. Then the third station and it is t y k l and it is beneath that also, ١٢ then after that m d s ʿ, then after that f s m r, then after that s y t t h, then after that z sh t g. And it is necessary that you know that our saying upon heat just as we have taught you first, and our saying by its drawing the cold, and j the indication of dryness, and r its drawing the moisture, and that the rule of the degree is that it be the noblest of these degrees and the steps beneath them and the minutes beneath the steps and the seconds beneath the minutes.

p. 215 (leaf n220)

And the thirds without the seconds, and the fourths without the thirds, and the fifths without the fourths. And if something is missing from these ranks, then man has no need of its Balance except that it is a thing which exits. And if it is deficient from that, it is because it was straying with that world ٣, so its scant adherence to it is necessitated; and it is a knowledge which exits by conjecture, and its concealment is entirely in its place, exiting in the Balance after the long distant verification. So if there is not much benefit in it, then it is more fitting for us to cast it aside and to operate according to what we have already set forth of the seven stations ٦ which are the rank up to the fifth; and we have already posited that ١ is a rank and ب a rank and ج a rank and د a rank, and that ١ is not and is not in one of the limits of ب nor ج nor د, and likewise ب is not in the limits of one from ا ج and د ٩, and likewise ج is not in a thing from ا ب and د, and likewise د is not predicated of a thing from ا ب ج, and that ١ may be in ج and د and is never in ب except by adjacency and the furthest distance, and that the statement regarding ب is likewise: it is only in ج and ١٢ is not in ١ except by adjacency and the furthest distance, and that the adjacency is the posited and the solution, and that the distance is the diameter and the circumference. And it is necessary that you know that the Balance is only in excess upon a condition, which is that ١٥ the bodies do not increase except by participation of bodies like them, and likewise the accidents. And bodies do not increase by accidents, nor accidents by bodies. And Euclid has said.

p. 216 (leaf n221)

In that is what suffices and indicates it, and it is his saying: the things between which and some [others] there is a proportion are those which, when doubled, make it possible that some of them exceed others.

٣The substrate therefore ought to be placed from it according to the measure of what is in it of the body that is inclined and what is altered by it from another so that the science of the Balance may be extracted sound, or by the placing of the Natures so that the Balance of the body and other [things] may become clear. And it is indispensable for whoever wishes to compound something from that that he know the measure of the body of the thing transferred [and] loosened and the measure of the body transferred [and] compounded.

٦So know that, for this is among what has whitened the forelocks.
And you also say: if you follow them as we have informed you in the product [there are] six letters

٩more so that with them they become seven, and they are: [prompt-injection-filtered]h, and our saying b [is] the seventh to six letters, and they are: [prompt-injection-filtered], and j [is] the seventh to six letters, and they are: z k s y t z, and d [is] likewise the seventh to six letters, and they are:

١٢h l ʿ m gh gh. And that a and what follows it of the letters is of the category of heat; rather our saying is upon heat in its entirety, > and likewise baʾ and what follows it [is] for coldness, <
and likewise jim and what follows it [is] for dryness, and dal and what follows it [is] for moistness. So if we say

١٥that there may be in the thing heat of ranks or degrees or minutes or seconds or thirds or fourths or fifths, we have indicated that by the letters which belong to that rank and have dispensed [with more]. So when we wish to particularize something from the aspect of numerical proportion, as our saying

p. 217 (leaf n222)

rank and one-third heat and rank and one-fourth moisture and rank and one-eighth dryness and rank and one-sixth coldness. It must be known that the rank is not divided by number except into degrees, every sixty of them being a rank, and the ratio of the minutes to the degrees is as the ratio of the degrees ٣ to the ranks, and that the ratio of the seconds to the minutes is as the ratio of the minutes [٤١] to the degrees, and the ratio of the thirds to the seconds is as the ratio of the seconds to the minutes, and likewise the fourths to the thirds. So when every sixty degrees is a rank, ٦ then every sixty minutes is one-sixth of a tenth of a rank, and every sixty seconds is one-sixth of a tenth of a degree, and likewise every sixty fourths is one-sixth of a tenth of a second. Know this and measure by it the matter of the ratio. These ranks have a figure in the books, and it is what ٩ must be understood so that it proceeds in its course. It is that when you see an alif alone it indicates to you the ranks always, and likewise every letter you see alone indicates to you a rank, either from the ranks or from what is below them. If it is connected it indicates to you its ratio. ١٢ Say how the manner of instruction for that is, since it is permissible that these figures be changed from what we have drawn them with at first. So say: If a thing has in it a rank of heat, the alif ١٥ is alone. If it is a rank and one-third, then the third is either collected or separated into two parts or three or four or more than that. It must be that you take what of it is collected first and relate it. If the third is collected, relate it as twenty degrees. ١٨

p. 218 (leaf n223)

And the form of the twentieth degree together with the rank is that it should be for our statement "our rank", for kaf indicates in the sum twenty and twenty is one-third of sixty, and alif with it indicates that it is from the hot division. Likewise if it were two-sixths then what follows the alif would be yaʾ, for yaʾ indicates ten and it is one-sixth of sixty. Likewise if it were one-third of ten then after the alif would be baʾ, and baʾ indicates two and two is one-third of ten of sixty. And it is necessary to separate the hot division and its parts from the other elemental division and its parts lest its form become confused. And let the letter indicating the rank of the element [and] its parts be placed in the letters if it is permissible to join it, and it is joined to it only as a separate [letter]. And in this <....> if you do not control yourself, otherwise much confusion will occur. Likewise if there is in it one degree of heat or two degrees of cold or three of dryness or four of moisture — for that is a locus of disagreement — or what resembles that, then write in the place of a degree of heat together with a rank or other than it 11 if it is a rank and a degree, or a fifth and a degree z 1. And the alif is postponed only lest it be confused with the rank, since there is no difference between the rank and what is below it. And if you wish, write upon it and advance it or preserve it. And all this is only signs pointing you to the nearest path, so understand that, for it is a great and weighty secret. And likewise you do in a rank and two degrees of cold.

p. 219 (leaf n224)

B B or in whatever form you wished, and likewise in dryness J J and in moisture D D, and likewise H H or other than that, for the case is one and the same in this course, if God the Mighty alone wills. ٣ And among the things it behoves one not to neglect in the science of the Balance are the properties, for the philosophers have mentioned that, and it is a thing belonging to no other science than the Balance, so preserve it. And that is like the magnet attracting iron and fleeing from vinegar, and the ostrich-egg shell ٦ in vinegar also, and like the forehead of the sea-hare and its taking of human flesh when it passes over it and turning every flesh into something adhering like fine flour, and like the eagle-stone in ٩ the carrying of women and other things that have followed this course. For if one does not know the property in that when a menstruating woman comes to a garden and casts herself on her back stripped of her garments then raises her leg toward the sky and hail comes upon that land, ١٢ the falling of hail in that garden is nullified by the doing of that woman as we have described, then he who possesses the science of the Balance is among the number of the common people, the rabble and the ignorant. Glory be to God, how great is that which is upon you from me, O human being; if you continue study and do not weary, you will, by God, arrive at the science of the ancients and the moderns and you will attain — and truly, my master — ١٥ the two brilliant stars.

p. 220 (leaf n225)

And let us speak concerning the figures among the qualities, since we have not given the thing its due from the Natures as to its length and shortness and breadth and fineness, since it is permissible for the likener ٣ that he be in that which necessitates length and chooses shortness, and in that which necessitates fineness then inclines toward thickness, and that is what we have explained to you in the beginning of this book. And this, in sum, is the case since when the likener arrives at these places he becomes one who has performed the regimen. But if I have not extended that, meaning the weight has not been obtained for you from these figures, then have recourse to ٦ its qualities from taste and smell and touch and sound. For if it falls short in one it does not fall short in another, and if it falls short in the second it does not fall short in the third, and if it exceeds the fourth the fifth remains only, since there is no aspect for it other than that. ٩ We have, by God the Almighty, completed from the science of the Balances that in which there is sufficiency if you reflect. And if you neglect that then you are in a heedless confusion just as God, blessed and exalted, has said: “in heedless confusion” () and you are among them. And if you know what is in my two books of Inference and the Proofs also, otherwise how slow is what you obtain concerning a thing. And there is not in these two books knowledge from the Balances, but in them are proofs concerning our two brothers whom we have expounded ١٥ upon in all our books or most of them, and we began with that in the inquiry of the Mother.

p. 221 (leaf n226)

in its beginning. And let us now speak in the Balance of the Greatest Thing with the slightest indication and make it the section of the Book, if God the Mighty alone wills.

٣We have already treated that fully in our book known as al-Nazm. Were it not that this our book ٣ needs to contain all the Balances after what we mentioned here following our mention of it in the book al-Nazm. Whoever wishes to operate thereby, let him operate; both are

٦correct, since the divergence in the Natures lies only in the letters and their writing, ٦ and likewise in the form of the books <which> indicate one meaning, so know that. All this is a symbol and belongs to the secrets; if you persevere in examining the six

٩books which we defined for you at the beginning of the Book, you will extract what is in this book. ٩ What is in our book known as al-Murakkab is symbolized upon the Thing, and that Thing is symbolized upon another thing. Thus when we say, for example, “Take lead and iron

١٢and make-them-similar, then when that is compounded there arises from it a body other than these four, ١٢ by my life, and it is corrupt; yet it is also nearer to soundness than any other. It is as though you
are more capable in the regimen of the Compound than in compounding the Simple, and you become

١٥the Soul and the Substance, while it stands to you in the place of the Natures, in whatever thing you wish to turn it; ١٥ so know that. Likewise is the statement concerning the Greatest Thing. As for the name of the Compound Thing, it is rasi ahabb wa <1> raʿ. That is because ras means interpenetration and it has the sense

p. 222 (leaf n227)

The entry of the Natures some of them into others and your dispersion of them for it as if you were compounding them until they unite. The necessary thing is only that this answers you and never refuses you if you [persist?] in it, and in it is what is needed for it whether raw or regimen-ed, and remove its cause until it answers you, and if not ٣ it will not answer you. So know that and measure between these letters and their division and between what is from them in the order and extract the truth from them. For by the truth of my master Jaʿfar, the blessings of God be upon him, ٦ these my books will never exist like them in the world and none like them ever existed. So if you reflect and abandon the obstacles from yourself and play with its play, otherwise it is not possible for us that >.. <..> upon that for two reasons: one of them from the side of sustenance and the second that we are not with you in ٤٢ the world, and with the fact that it is not possible for us that even if we were with you in the world. And ill-omen is ill-omen and good is blessing and blessing is good. So investigate the meaning of blessing and ill-omen, the way will be sound for you, if God the Mighty alone wills. And blessing is His saying "and He made me blessed" () meaning beneficial. And ill-omen is avarice, and avarice ١٥ begets baseness, and baseness begets hatred, and hatred produces enmities, and enmities lead to contentions, and contentions are the origin of hostilities, and hostilities ١٥ beget wars, and wars beget the passing of life with thought and grief and killing, and thought begets the passing of this world and the next by cutting off the substances of pleasures with the displeasures of this world,

p. 223 (leaf n228)

And its departure is the permanence of chastisement at the end of eternity. And all of this, its root is miserliness and ill-omen, and priority is to shun this path absolutely. And the opposite of ill-omen and miserliness is blessing and generosity, and the two are brothers just as their two opposites are brothers, so know, if God wills. ٣ And after that it behooves you to persevere in the lesson night and day so that you become the surpassing, the excellent, the extractor of obscurities; otherwise you would be as Balinas said: And whoever his natures do not yearn to hear my speech, then because of the oblique darkness between Nature and ٦ the ascent in the light of wisdom like the state of the dark cloud preventing the bright eyesight from connecting with the lights of the stars. So if you persevere in the lesson, otherwise you would be thus. And if you persevere in the lesson for it at first, you will hit in it and miss, then your reward will increase ٩ and you will work by it as you desire when you have mastered knowledge, as Balinas said in his description of his book: So that by long study of it you may attain knowledge of the secrets of creation and the Work of Nature. And it is, by my life, thus; may God grant us and you success in what I have attained, for He is generous, bountiful. ١٢ The Book of the Arena of the Intellect is finished, with praise to God Most High and His aid ()

p. 224 (leaf n229)

In the name of God, as befits Him and as He deserves, the Generous, the Bountiful, who does whatsoever He wills, exalted be He above what the falsifiers say, very high. Whoever preserves the rules of these our books and their ordering and what their subject-matter concerns, he will know with certain knowledge that we promised to mention, among the sum of our books, something separate concerning the science of the properties. And since our way in all our teachings is that we mention in them in detail...

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