Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Jabirian Corpus·Book of the Monk·Book of the Monk

p. 529 (leaf n534)

How did he not mention it among the sum of the knowledge he had deposited with me? He said to me: O Jabir, woe unto you, how could my invention in this chapter have been hidden from you when you yourself had described it in several respects? I said to him: I do not recall that, O my master. So he pointed to the books and said: ٣ The first of them is the Book of Collection and the second is one of the regimens of the Unified by itself. So I stretched out to my books and reflected and repeated my consideration in these two books and found the matter ٦ as he had said. Thus I knew that nothing of his knowledge had escaped in meaning, even if one not of his station supposed that his knowledge did not encompass everything. However, I saw fit to set down this regimen in the words of this man and according to the method of this book so that these books of mine might be complete ٩ in all respects and the fault-finder find no passage therein. And where is there a passage for the fault-finder therein, O my brother? Rather, who have I against him who would lightly overpower what I have deposited therein of these divine sciences? Yet I mean by “the fault-finder” only the contrary. ١٢ Know that also. And know that this monk—news of him had reached me for a time after my companionship with my master Harbi (may God sanctify his spirit), so I was longing to see him, because it had reached me concerning him that he had taken knowledge from Marianus whom Khalid ibn Yazid ١٥ had rescued by pursuit and had set spies and watchers over him until he took him from the road of the Holy House, and he used to send him much gold every year; and when he died, this monk succeeded him. So when my master Harbi passed away, my soul was yearning toward this

p. 530 (leaf n535)

The monk—and it was said to me that he was in some of the wadis of al-Sham—so I went out in search of him until I obtained him and took from him this account [63b] of the Stone, and it is curious. He possessed abundant and copious knowledge, yet I did not find anything of his knowledge strange save this regimen, so therefore I restricted myself to it from his knowledge and deposited it in this book—just as my master [said]—upon its face without alteration to it after I had performed it with my own hand, and it proved sound. That is because I asked him, by God, when I met him, about his being in his place in the wilderness and his ability to remain and his capacity for the Work despite the unavailability of instruments with him owing to his distance from habitation and his lack of that by which he might test the quantities and the instrument. He said to me: The skill that is with me suffices me in place of practicing the Work, and if I wished to practice it, I could do so in this place of mine. So I said: By what regimen and by what instrument? He laughed and said: By the nearest of ways and by the easiest of instruments. So I said: You have informed me of that so that I may share with you in its knowledge and relate it from you, for even though I have devoted myself to this knowledge I am not independent of the master in its aspects. So he said to me: By the method of Hermes the thrice-great in wisdom. I said to him: Which method, for I have already known most of them. He said: By his method to his son Tat in his book. I said: This statement is not agreed upon until I see the regimen, for I deem it unlikely that this matter should be upon the face of the regimen and not upon the face of the Balance without sublimation, distillation, rusting, or putrefaction. So he said to me: Come, let us go so that I may show you.

p. 531 (leaf n536)

To it. And he turned aside to a cave among some caves which he frequents and brought out from its midst a piece of rock to dig with it similar to the fox's burrow except that the two of them are deeper. And he went in the moon of the earth and made between them in the Stone a long channel then took a piece of clay from the soil of the place moistened it and spread it and made it like the censer of incense and left it to dry. When it dried he fitted it upon the hollow which he had hollowed and trimmed it upon it with the knife until it fitted upon the pit and the channel entirely. And he took the Stone roughly mixing it with its mixtures and kneaded it with something of the oil which he used to light and by which he was illuminated at night until it became like the small ball in that hollow and he inverted upon it the prepared clay according to its measure [altogether] and gathered firewood and threw it from above it and kindled the fire in it. When it took hold in it he left it and went out to the door of the cave and I went out. So we sat talking and I was admiring his regimen and marveling at it and I did not know what he intended to bring forth from it except that I knew that the oil would burn those quantities and the medicines if the fire heated upon it so that it would not be suitable then except for sublimation to cause its Spirits to come forth so that they tincture only the external things. When two hours of the day had passed he said: Enter so that we may see what has become of our Stone in that regimen of ours. So we entered and the fire had gone out and died down. Then he swept the fire from it with some grass and cleaned the place then raised

p. 532 (leaf n537)

the clay from its head, and lo it was a vein just as I had known it, and in it was the gleam of the Spirits prepared for sublimation, so I doubted its corruption. Then he raised it and cast it with the ashes ٣ so I wondered at it. When he had cleaned its place and its location, he turned to the channel which he had dug, and lo it resembled the acorn, shining and gleaming with intense gleam, so he took it while it was not pure because of the filth of the oil upon it and its dirt and its blackness. Then ٦ he brought out quicksilver and smelted it in that place and projected a part of that acorn upon its head and covered it with that ashes. Then he kindled upon it a little of the fire like the fire that melts wax. When it heated, I heard for it a great crackling; I feared that the quicksilver would fly from it toward our faces, so I withdrew from its proximity. Then he uncovered the place, and lo ٩ the quicksilver had become a red glowing lump, more beautiful than all I had seen. So he said to me: This is my regimen, O Jabir. I benefited from it by this advantage and knew that it was the best of his knowledge. ١٢ And I have not withheld from you any part of it — by the truth of my master — a thing, so know that and act by it [٢٦٤] correctly, if God Most High wills. And since we have reached the end of the regimen of this monk, let us cut short the book ١٥ and turn to what follows it, if God wills, and by God is our success and our protection, and He is sufficient for us and excellent is the Guardian. The Book of the Monk is completed by the praise of God and His help and the goodness of His granting success.

p. 533 (leaf n538)

It does not harm a man’s love for mastering the science of the Balances that he should have ٣ begun the study of their books, especially what we have composed — for it is more expansive and clearer than what the philosophers produced, since that too was little — and especially for one who consults in this our book ٦ which belongs to the books of the Balances and is one of the books entitled the Books of Philosophy. I have named it Kitab al-Hasil because my master Jaʿfar b. Muhammad — may the blessings of God be upon him — said to me: “What is the yield now, after these books on ٦ the Balances, and what is the benefit in them?” I replied: “The benefit is knowledge of the great compounds whose nearness of term replaces the length of the term of the regimen.” My master therefore named this my book Kitab al-Hasil; it belongs to the science of the Balances, is expounded, and needs nothing else besides it. That was the command of my master — may the blessings of God be upon him.

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