Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Jabirian Corpus·Selections from the Book of Seventy·Selections from the Book of Seventy

p. 461 (leaf n466)

the earth by water, so its dryness established it. Then the sphere revolved and the Natures were weak, so they produced the stones in the minerals; then it strengthened and its revolution increased, so the trees and plants were produced; then it strengthened and revolved a complete revolution, so the animals were thereby produced ٣. Now a certain group rejects this and says to the partisans of the Natures that they have lied in this; otherwise, whence are the origins of things in the first place? So when they had explained this to them, they said: ٦ what is the proof? The partisans of the Natures said: Our proof is that we are able to produce the like of what the mineral produces from stones, and to produce the like of what the Natures produce in it and in plants and animals; and the proof of that is that we do produce it, and you have witnessed from us many of these ٩ things. They said: Then how can man be possible for you to produce the like of him? The partisans of the Natures said: You have already conceded in the first place that it is possible for us to produce the like of stone and tree and the rest of the animals except man; otherwise establish for us the proof of that in the first place ١٢. They said: Yes. The partisans of the Natures said: If the genus is all one in origin and differs only in form, and the origin is what acts for the whole genus, then whatever you have conceded of that regarding one of the genus is permissible regarding the whole; otherwise ١٥ you have contradicted your own statement. So know that, and we have only guided upon this so that you may know that knowledge of...

p. 462 (leaf n467)

The principles lead to the All. And if you intend from here, the way is made easy for you and is not difficult.

٣Then we say after that: The first principles are the four, which are heat, cold, moisture and dryness; two of them are active and two are passive to the active ones. Heat is active and its passive among the four is dryness,

٦and cold is active and its passive among the four is moisture; and cold and heat never combine together in a place. When one of them dissolves in a body, the other dissolves in it after it, so it becomes its opposite; and likewise we say regarding moisture and dryness as we said regarding heat and cold. If heat attaches to dryness, it becomes fire; and according to

٩the measure in which heat and dryness dissolve in the body, that thing becomes whatever it is in the nature of fire or beneath that, except that it is of its kind. If heat employs

١٢moisture, air comes to be first; if it is in another, then it is in the nature of air, meaning from these existents; and according to the measure in which each of these elements dissolves in a body, that body draws near to that element and that element becomes a principle for it,

١٥like air, and air has a principle. So know that. Heat never employs cold, and likewise cold never employs heat. Those are the operations of heat; so know them.

p. 463 (leaf n468)

As for the use of cold, know that it first uses moisture, so that water and all things that are in the nature of water come to be. And if they are not in the nature of water — ٣ and that is according to the extent to which the body has been treated and the body has been suspended in it — their measure of cold and moisture will be — ٣ know that. And it has the use of cold dryness, for the first thing composed from them is earth and all that is on the nature of earth, except that ٦ the strongest thing composed from them is earth, so know that. ٦ Then, after that, when these principles had mingled and mixed and every accident of these accidents had attached to the body, the manifest appeared, so it was reported that it is in the power of man to perform the work of Nature. Then he gave an example of that by returning the things to their constitutions, ٩ performing the dissolutions; then he subjected them constantly to cooking [the cooking of Nature] as constant as the cooking of Nature which does not cease, so he performed the dissolution first, and it is a round shape () on the shape of the sphere, and he placed that in a river according to the work of the wheel and made its rotation ١٢ constant; then he kindled upon it a constant fire in the pit which is under the dissolution-vessel. And he placed in the dissolution-vessel lead first, and the cooking kept taking it constantly until he brought it out as white silver; then the cooking took it again until he brought it out as gold; then ١٥

p. 464 (leaf n469)

Likewise he managed tin, iron and copper until he worked them all, and likewise he did with silver, so this was the first [stage] of the Work. Then he disappeared and another manifest [thing] appeared in which was a wondrous power; he made the Greatest Elixir in the distant time first. Then the people did not cease working with it down to the time of Plato the Great. Then they desired to abridge it, so they shortened its time until it became a tenth of what he had first worked. Then it did not cease diminishing until it reached a tenth of the tenth. Then the compositions and the procedures appeared, and what was of them was true. Then they worked what is nothing, like the counterfeit, the spurious and other of all the loads, so they corrupted what the philosophers had first worked. Then the origin was also from the Natures, not from other than them; the arrival at knowledge of them is their Balance; whoever knows their Balance knows all that is in them and how they are compounded, and practice brings forth that. Whoever is practiced is truly knowing, and whoever is not practiced is not knowing. Sufficiency for you is in practice in all the crafts: the practiced craftsman is skilled and the unpracticed is idle. So how [much more] in what the people are sufficient in, how [much more] this Art.

p. 465 (leaf n470)

In the name of God the Compassionate the Merciful. Praise be to God Lord of the Worlds and may God bless our master Muhammad Seal of the Prophets and his family and grant peace. ٣ There have already been presented to us before this book thirty-one books on the arts and I shall mention in this book the cause regarding Saturn and its influence and its regimen, if God Exalted wills. I have named it the Book of the Garden and I am exhaustive in it regarding discourse on Saturn ٦ according to what has reached us of that. We say that its Nature is cold dry — black bile — and likewise everything this planet has specified by affinity, and the strongest thing Saturn has specified by its Nature from ٩ the metallic bodies is lead and it is al-israb [lead]. And every tree or stone or animal or thing sharing in these cannot be devoid of the four Natures the two composites and phlegm and blood, their forms being conjoined in it with their forms and opposites with their opposites and these ١٢

p. 466 (leaf n471)

The Natures in every existent are either complete manifest or complete hidden, and no existent lacks two active and passive Natures manifest and two active and passive Natures hidden. The meaning of complete and incomplete is that silver, according to them, has its manifest [Natures] deficient and its hidden [Natures] ٣ complete, while gold is the opposite of that; therefore it was easy for them and near to return the bodies to their roots in the shortest time, which is that they invert the Natures in the bodies, making the hidden manifest and the manifest hidden. As for iron, its ٦ manifest is corrupt and its hidden is corrupt, because its manifest is iron and it is corrupt according to silver and gold, and its hidden is quicksilver and it is corrupt according to them also. So when they invert iron to the quicksilvery [state], its manifest becomes cold moist and its hidden hot dry; thus they manifest its heat ٩ and hide its coldness, so the manifest becomes hot moist, and that is gold, and its hidden becomes cold dry, and that is silver or lead of asrab, because some of them said that the hidden of gold is lead and some of them said that its hidden is silver, and this is a good saying. We shall mention all of that and how it is inverted, so know it. The root in that is that you know first that of these bodies there are some whose two manifest Elements it is proper ١٥ to hide and whose two hidden Elements to manifest until it is perfected.

p. 467 (leaf n472)

And it becomes a body that does not corrupt according to what is intended thereby, and it is its secret. Some of these bodies require that an element be derived for it from its interior so that it appears and its opposite is concealed in it, that element. We mention that so that you may know it. Lead is cold and dry in its exterior, soft and yielding, and it is hot and moist in its interior, hard. The meaning of soft and hard is that every body God the Exalted created, its interior differs from its exterior in softness and hardness. The proof of that is that when its Natures are inverted so that its exterior returns interior and its interior exterior, if it was moist it becomes hard, and if it was hard it becomes moist. This is what is in lead of the discourse. As for tin, its origin upon which the four Natures are first compounded, its exterior is cold and moist and its interior is hot, dry, and hard—this according to the analogy of the first. When these Natures are balanced in this body according to this measure, it is called lead. Know that, for its interior is iron and its exterior is lead. That is because when

p. 468 (leaf n473)

It hid its outward and revealed its inward, a portion, so it became iron. That is easy in its day and in days near and far. Between that there is a difference, and it is not that they chose the farther over the nearer without a cause, but the farther tinctures one with thousands, the middle with two hundreds, and the nearer tinctures tens—so know that. As for iron, its origin from which the four Natures are composed, its outward is distinguished by heat and much dryness, so its inward is then, according to the origin, cold moist, and it is thus: hard in outward, loose in inward; and whatever in the bodies is harder than it outwardly, likewise the looseness of its inward is according to the measure of the hardness of its outward according to the origin. Likewise it is by the regimen when its essences are inverted. That which is upon this pattern is quicksilver, for its outward is iron and its inward is quicksilver. The way to its rectification is that you diminish its dryness, for then its moisture appears and it becomes gold, because when its moisture appears its dryness is hidden according to the premise; or diminish its heat, for then its coldness appears and the heat is hidden by the appearance of the coldness, so it becomes dry silver; or diminish its dryness a little, for then it becomes soft silver. This is what is in iron of description and limit. As for gold, it is hot moist in its outward, cold dry in its inward—so return all

p. 469 (leaf n474)

Bodies to this Nature, for it is a balanced Nature. If you wish to increase upon it until it reddens so that it tinctures silver and it becomes like mineral gold and endures solution, then increase its heat and decrease its moisture until it is nearly hot and dry, for its redness has not become intense. Know this thing, for it is the root in the Nature of gold and its return as a noble Elixir. As for the Nature of Venus which it possesses, it is heat and dryness, and it is below iron, because its root is hot and moist, gold; so when dryness befell it in the mine it corrupted it. Remove its dryness, for it returns to its Nature. As for quicksilver, its Nature is coldness and moisture in its exterior and softness, while its interior is hot, dry and hard without doubt. Its exterior is quicksilver and its interior is iron, just as the interior of iron is quicksilver and its exterior is iron. If you wish to transfer quicksilver to its root, the method is that you first make it silver, which is to internalize its moisture and externalize its dryness, so that it becomes silver at that time and the first degree is completed. If you wish its completion, then invert the silver as it is until its exterior returns inward and its interior outward in both Natures, the active and the passive, so that their exterior becomes hot, moist, gold, and their interior cold, dry, iron. This is what is in quicksilver.

p. 470 (leaf n475)

As for silver, its first origin is gold, but cold and dryness overcame it

٣so it hid the gold in its interior; thus the Nature which prevailed appeared, so that its exterior became
silver and its interior gold. If you wish to return it to gold, hide its coldness, for its heat will then appear; then hide dryness after that, for moisture will appear and it will become gold. This is what is in all bodies of the regimens, and peace.

٦() From the thirty-fourth treatise
... So when they had no device for bringing forth what was hidden except by the medicines which we have already mentioned, they observed that the action of the medicines is like the action of the Natures, because they were generated

٩and they too possess Natures. Then they observed and found these medicines, by analogy,
more comprehensive and more beneficial, because the simple is for the simple and the compound for the compound. And they said: If we buried it

p. 471 (leaf n476)

in the earth it rusts, and if we leave it in the air it is of no use and time does not act upon it at all; and if time acted upon it outside the mine it would become abundant in the hands of the people and they would dispense with it; and if they left it in the water it would not increase nor would the water accept it; and if they left it in the fire all of it would depart. So the people fell into perplexity until time brought the masters of experience from among the philosophers, and Arius appeared and produced for them the fusible things and showed the treatment by fire, and that the fusion which they had said was an error was correct. So they tested his statement and found it as he had mentioned to us regarding the operation of the fusible things. And that is that he presented a round vessel and fitted upon it from the firm clay which does not crack—the one we established in our book known as the Book of Clays from the one hundred and twelve—and fitted it upon that round vessel, then left it until it dried, then cut it into two pieces so that the mold came out. Then he joined the two pieces so that they became like the first vessel, then he placed inside that apparatus whatever he wished of the bodies, then sealed its join firmly, then made for it an apparatus that moves it with a perpetual motion after it had dried.

p. 472 (leaf n477)

And put it in a house that revolves around it like wine so that the whole form became exactly like a water-wheel. Then kindle a fire in the wine that is under the apparatus with a moderate kindling like the fire of cooking... (4) We have already presented books on the science and the practice; therefore it is known that the water must be nothing but pure, so let us now speak about the second element which is indispensable, that it too must be nothing but pure like its companion. So we say: the oil must not be permitted to be anything but pure, and we add to the discourse on the oil a discourse on the water just as we previously presented the discourse on both of them in the first epistle. As for the water, it has become necessary that it be purified so that it may be like one of the elements and the composition may be balanced by it. The discourse on that is in two aspects: the first aspect concerns the first regimen of the philosophers, which is the one that ought to extract its coldness and its moisture, its heat and its moisture, its heat and its dryness, its coldness and its dryness, then extract the coldness and the moisture and the heat and the dryness; and it is the first object. The aspect in the purification of pure coldness has already been set forth for us

p. 473 (leaf n478)

The discourse on it: it is necessary that you derive the Cold from the Water and the Earth until it reaches its limit. And this, the more you repeat it in the sublimation, the better and stronger it is for its tincture and its operation. The method of the regimen is that you cast the Water into the cucurbit and leave in the cucurbit something of a strong, powerful binder like Sulphur and what resembles it, for the Dryness and the Heat desiccate the Moisture and it burns what is in it of the Moisture, so that the Cold remains alone; then use it. Likewise proceed with the Moisture that is in the Oil so as to extract it from it only, because there is no Moisture except in the Oil and the Water. When you have extracted its Cold from the Water, its Moisture is burnt, so the Moisture then remains in the Oil; extract it also from the Oil and cast away its Heat, and you have obtained two Elements from the Natures. Proceed with the Heat and the Dryness just as you proceeded with the Cold and the Moisture, equally, which is that you take the tincture, extract its Heat and cast away its Dryness. And take the cold dry Earth, extract its Dryness and cast away its Cold, and four root Elements are verified for you from which every thing of the compounds comes to be. From the Water you extract the Cold, from the Oil you extract the Moisture, from the Fire you extract the Heat,

p. 474 (leaf n479)

And the earth: dryness is extracted from it. So this is the good, excellent regimen, and this: its tincture occurs in proportion to what has entered upon it of the regimen.

٣As for what the philosophers mentioned of the greatest first regimen, they said: the limit of the water, if dryness is extracted from it, is that it be continually distilled until it becomes white and clear; and when it is taken out of the cucurbit it dries in pieces like salt — that is the end. And the limit of extracting

٦the moisture is distillation also, until there comes out from it something very much clinging and adhering; that royalty is the moisture whose description preceded, and it never congeals; rather, if the heat of fire strikes it, it dissolves and becomes air, but in a long time. And as for

٩the limit of heat in the regimen, it is that one make it reach the point where it becomes a transparent body having a brilliance, intensely red, clear, not dull — this is the limit of heat. And the limit of dryness is that it be solid, dull, dry, or dust having no part that diminishes by gathering and increases by dispersion.

١٢These elements therefore have precious operations; I have set them down separately in my book on the properties.

p. 475 (leaf n480)

Properties of the Stone, because there is nothing among the regimens that reaches this limit except the Stone. We also have a Book of the Hundred and Twelve which we named the Properties, in which are the properties of all things belonging to the three existing genera. They said: the limit of dryness with them ٣ is that it be a thing of very little quantity in its appearance, so that when it is spread and extended by levigation or ground it multiplies like dust; then if you leave it it also gathers while being dry and intensely astringent—this is the end. This is the utmost of the first regimens. ٦ When it has been purified for you, you have succeeded, because the first regimen which the philosophers conducted is from these things; the weights from this are one to one, equal, without increase or decrease; the mixtures are for Fire and Earth some of Water and Oil, ٩ and the fattening with oil. This is the benefit of the greatest chapter—its entire description, God willing. By God I do not mention it in another place, so beware lest you mention it to one unworthy of it; bury it in your speech and make it exceedingly enigmatic. Know that God Most High ١٢ has acquainted you with the whole secret of the philosophers; so do not waste what God—glory be to Him—has singled you out with, lest He punish you for that; and do not be niggardly with it toward one worthy of it, lest God punish you for that.

p. 476 (leaf n481)

Understand the meaning of my speech. This is the sum of what is in the first chapter of the entire regimen. Ascent of the third treatise and the lesson therein (0)

٣Know that the two differing groups among the philosophers were given of knowledge a long ladder and a great power, so they reached thereby what they desired. The first who performed the Work among those whose report has reached us and has not been cut off from us—and he is indeed of exceedingly remote antiquity—is Aryus, because

٦Pythagoras, the most ancient of the philosophers, says: “My father Aryus said,” just as we say “Our father Adam, upon him be blessing and peace,” and the philosophers after him, when they are remote in time, say: “Our father Pythagoras said,” calling him their father because of his antiquity. This is the first who performed the Stone by the first regimen; then he mentioned first from first, and this reaches its end at the very first.

٩Then the philosophers after him performed by the first regimen from the time of Aryus to Socrates. Then after Socrates there came a people who broke his regimen and inverted it, supposing that it would reach that degree.

p. 477 (leaf n482)

By repeated distillation only. And in its breaking from its rank are virtues, among them the nearness of its term and the ease of its operation and the promotion of its utility, so know it well. Then a group came after that from among the philosophers who found the regimen long because they saw that it was possible for them to abbreviate it by subtle ٣ solution, so they performed something called the third regimen, and its station from the first is like the station of the second from the first, so this third became the best of all; therefore know it and operate by it. From the forty-sixth treatise ٦ There have already preceded us, before this our book, books on the arts of the science of the water only, and I mention in these remaining five books the operation of the oil and the fire and the earth and I make clear that. And this my book is on the mention of the oil in particular, so know it. It is necessary that it be extracted ٩ from the tincture and separated in detail, and there has already preceded us mention of the rules of its extraction in what suffices. So when you have extracted it from the tincture, then the regimen upon it is in three ways:

p. 478 (leaf n483)

Either the complete sequence of the Greatest Chapter drives it, or the second sequence of the Middle Chapter drives it, or the third sequence of the Lesser Chapter drives it. If you desire it for the first, take it after its extraction, then distill it with water and repeat the distillation upon it with the moisture seventy times—there is no avoiding that, or else it will spoil for us. Then distill it off after that until its heat departs and its moisture remains; this is done by placing in the cucurbit sponge stored with whitened verdigris or what stands in its place, then casting the oil upon it in the cucurbit and distilling it by distillation likewise, always: whenever it is distilled, return it to the distillation. The sponge is affected in every distillation, for it continues to distill and blacken constantly in every distillation until it becomes the color of earth or blacker, adhering to everything it touches and clinging to it; it is then discarded, for all the moisture adhering to the substance has been removed, and that occurs after seventy distillations. If you do not know the sign, extend the number and you will reach the sign, and by it reach the number. Its secret is that you first distill seventy times with the moisture before the sponge, then introduce the sponge to it in the apparatus compressed with bamboo rods, and it is not permitted to use the sponge in what preceded of the distillation with the moisture. And the more you narrow the apparatus in which you place the sponge, the more advanced it is from the distillation with the moisture.

p. 479 (leaf n484)

In it the bamboo rods were best. We have already mentioned that and fully expounded the discourse upon it in our Book of the Object of Objects, and in it is the explanation of every book of ours. These books are richer than the Seventy, being an explanation of our Hundred and Twelve Books, which comprise ٣ the whole Work, save that they are closed as to symbol; but these are little in symbol. Know that if the oil belongs to the first degree, then when it is raised until the moisture remains as black gum, it is complete. It is not required that there enter with it of the water anything save what is its like in purity and coldness ٦ only, likewise of the hot fire only, likewise of the dry earth only. The weights for this regimen are one and one from every element equally. But if you desire to extract the oil for the second regimen, then it is easier than ٩ the first and less in tincture and utility. Its operation is that you first purify the oil from the tincture by the moisture, then distill it with water alone forty-nine distillations, then introduce it into the compressed cucurbit and distill it with the dry by means of the rods, completing the seventy; this is its distillation ١٢. Sometimes it reaches a hundred distillations after the forty-nine. Some of them distill it

p. 480 (leaf n485)

With the instrument of the rods seventy. This then is what it contains for the second regimen. As for the third regimen, it is that you distill with moisture by means of rods of myrtle twenty-

٣three times of distillation, then introduce into the compressed cucurbit, then take the connection either upon
one rod, and that is better, or upon rods; then distill again with dryness after that a full forty-nine times of distillation, for it will be good, so use it; its root is forty-nine

٦times of distillation, just as the root of the second is seventy and the root of the first is seven hundred. This then is what is in
these three chapters and the regimen of each one singly. So seek it in these books and carry out for each one its regimen, and beware lest you introduce an element from one regimen into

٩another regimen, for it is corruption absolutely and nothing whatever will come of it. And if it is obscure, then do
what I command you therein, and that is that you produce the water of the first regimen and its fire and its oil and its earth in the first, and the water of the second regimen and its earth and its oil and its fire in the second, and the water of the

١٢third regimen and its fire and its earth and its oil in the third; and if you carry out the third you will have no need of
regimen other than it. And I say: the oil distilled seven hundred times of distillation has a limit, so it is necessary that it be tested

١٥after its distillation by means of the softenings for things of extreme dryness; and if it softens them and whitens them together with

p. 481 (leaf n486)

its softening, then he has grasped what we have outlined, and if he opposes, return him to the Work until he reaches the rank which we have mentioned. And likewise the second and the third, and these two perform other than the operation of the first, and the third other than the operation of the second. And the second softens copper alone, and the first softens everything in its perfection. ٣ (٥) The seventh and twentieth treatise has been corrected. It has become clear and established from our statement in what has preceded that the four Principles are the operators in the bodies from the three Genera, and they are the affecting and the bestowing of the Tincture: Fire and Water and Air and Earth. And we do not see an action of one of these three Genera except by those Elements, and therefore our reliance in this Art is upon the Regimen of these Elements: we strengthen its weak, and we weaken its strong, and we rectify its corrupt. So whoever has reached the operation of these Elements in these three Genera, he has indeed reached every knowledge and has grasped the knowledge of creation and the Art of Nature. So let no doubt attach to you, and if ١٢

p. 482 (leaf n487)

The nature of every Elixir is only from them and by them. We have only placed in the Elixir a Nature overcoming the corrupting Nature present in the body, so that it was like a thing in which there is an excess of wateriness. We introduced ٣ fire upon it and we persisted in that according to the measure of need, lest it also burn it, so that its corruption would be greater than the first. Thus the thing regimed by fire became balanced and it reaches it to the limit ٦ we willed. The origin of things is four Natures and they have a fifth origin, which is the simple Substance called Hyle, which is the dust filling the interstice, and it is between all that when the Sun rises upon it. It was said that it is the Soul, so know it. To it assemble the forms and the shapes and everything dissolved returns to it, and it is the origin of every compound, and the compound is an origin for it, and it is the origin of the All ٩ and it remains until the appointed time. As for the four active Elements in this Substance which tinctures it, they are without doubt simple: heat is fire without dryness, and dryness is earth without coldness, and coldness is water without moisture, and moisture is air without heat. Whatever ١٢ is compounded from these Elements in this Substance, we first impose upon it four Elements which are secondary Elements to the first ones, and they are pure without defilement, and they are fire and air and water and earth. Fire from that is heat and dryness and Substance only, ١٥ air is heat and moisture and Substance only, earth is coldness and dryness and Substance only, water is coldness and moisture and Substance only. Know that and work the Elixir upon it if you will. It is that you compound it from four Elements:

p. 483 (leaf n488)

Hot and dry, and it is the tincture from all existing things which comes out from their oils; follow with it what you find in the book which follows this book, for everything that is done, when you have subjected it to the regimen, becomes as one thing. So understand this discourse ٣ and extract from it a second hot moist root, which is air, and it is the oil extracted from it, the tincture from all existing things. So know it and follow with it what has already passed of its regimen; you will thereby arrive at your desired ends and at all the hundredfold prolongation. War, war! ٦ And how shall you attain the Unity if you have power over it? And extract from it a cold moist root like water, which is the water distilled from every kind. And these are not obtained from distillation according to the weights of the Natures, but you reach thereby what you love, ٩ if God the Exalted wills. Then extract after that a cold dry root, which is earth, from all the remaining existing things in the bottom of the cucurbit after distillation. So follow with them what has already passed and what we shall mention in the ninth treatise. And those four are present in ١٢ every existent thing in the world; they are separated from it by the regimen. So this is the sum of what is in the regimen.

p. 484 (leaf n489)

I wished to increase its power, so begin with the distilled water first, it being cold moist; extract its coldness from its moisture and cast away its moisture, so that it remains cold without moisture. Proceed to the oil and cast away its heat so that it remains moist, and to the fire and cast away its dryness so that it remains hot, and to the earth and cast away its coldness so that it remains dry. Then compound from that a principle and operate with it. This is sounder than the first, more beneficial and more precious. In that is a proof that difference occurs among the Natures, because if there is a dryness in the fire and a dryness in the earth, it is not safe that one of them increase over the other, so that difference of action occurs thereby; likewise the moisture of the water and the moisture of the air, and likewise the heat of the fire, and likewise the cold of the water and the cold of the earth. It has become necessary that the second regimen is sounder and more complete than the third, so operate with it.

p. 485 (leaf n490)

Some have claimed that there is an animal in the sea whose forehead is of yellow Stone. When that animal is hunted, being of human form, and its throat is cut, and a qirat is taken from the Stone that is in its forehead and cast upon ten ratl of Moon, it turns it into Sun ٣ without any regimen. This animal is known as the Physician of the Sea. That is because when any of them falls ill, it comes to it and indicates to it the place of the malady; then it rubs that Stone upon that place two or three times and that animal recovers and is healed ٦ and returns sound. It is only known of it that when it is hunted it remains in the water of its life, except that it seeks to escape at any time it finds opportunity and casts itself into the water. So when any animal is afflicted with any of the maladies, that animal is taken and its forehead is rubbed ٩ upon that place and it heals it instantly. Indeed I have seen a people of the Bahrainis

p. 486 (leaf n491)

The learned respondents, and they asked them about the physician of the sea, for his affair was more famous than had been estimated; so they guaranteed that they would show him to him. When we had plunged into the sea we reached an island called Sandiyat, [with] a company of physicians. I said: Devise a stratagem for catching ٣ one of them. We cast the net and enclosed them, and one of them fell into it. When his legs were caught and he thought there was no escape for him, and he found no way out, he began to strike with the striking of ٦ a woman upon his cheeks violently, and his forehead became visible, and behold it was a stone that gleamed; so I took it, and behold she was a beautiful maiden, as beautiful as can be among forms. I built for her a house in the ship and confined her in it. A convulsion befell one of the people of the ship, so I brought her out ٩ and passed her over the arm of the convulsed one and his leg, and he was cured immediately. A youth with me saw him and fell in love with her, and he did not cease importuning concerning her until I feared destruction for him from her. So I brought her with him into the house, and the youth endured with her in that, and married her and loved her, and she bore a boy and he was reared, ١٢ except that his form was like the form of a human being and upon his forehead was something gleaming, not like [the] forehead; and I never saw anything more wonderful than his affair. When the boy grew up > < I saw the mother’s inclination toward him a strong inclination.

p. 487 (leaf n492)

immensely. Yet with that she does not speak, with the length of time, a single word more than a faint murmur, a thing with no voice to it save very hoarse, fearing lest she throw herself into the water. She began entering and going out, the vessel having high sides which she could not reach to climb ٣ over them. She continued to keep us company and to ascend from place to place until, when she stood with us, we made her safe; she climbed and threw herself into the water. The youth was grieved and his wife [grieved] over her. The youth took his son with him, and with that he does not speak. When we had journeyed after that ٦ and stood in an immense distress wherein there was no deliverance, behold, there was the physician sitting upon the water, nothing of him submerged. Then she gestured with peace, so the people all gestured peace to her. Groups approached telling her what the stratagem was, groups calling out, groups weeping, and every group in a craft of the crafts ٩. She gestured to them with something of things; then the youths cast the anchors, and the anchors would not hold fast until three anchors of them held fast from a group. The sea had overturned, and she was firmly placed; she had opened her mouth and the water was entering ١٢ into her as the greatest of seas that can be; we imagined that the upper cleft of her mouth was a great mountain in the sea that had taken the sea from its beginning to its end. We did not doubt, when we saw her, that she would close her mouth upon us so that we would be in some of her molars unto ١٥

p. 488 (leaf n493)

that God Most High sufficed. Then the boy was overturned and fell into the water. When it was the morrow, it appeared that his forehead had become a stone. I ceased not until I had taken from the physicians three; then I took a single forehead and cast it down, and I looked upon its tincture. I reflected then upon the power of the Creator, may He be glorified and exalted, how He had made level this place in this animal with that which none among men, or all of them if they had assembled upon it, were able to do. So blessed be God, the best of creators. I cried out: There is no god but Thou; glory be to Thee, our Lord, and Thou art exalted above what the vain say.

p. 489 (leaf n494)

Let us consider the matter of prophethood and the imamate and their followers in the like of that which we have considered among the properties of all the other sought-after matters with causes, and upon [the fact] that the majority of the philosophers and the people of the Law have spoken in this meaning and have not hit the mark. ٣ (Mention is made of statements affirming that some people acknowledge prophethood, revelation and miracle and that some of them deny [them].) And the statement of most people that the sciences exist, and I believe that the science of the outward is more difficult of existence and harder to seek than the science of the inward ٦ And as for the names of the persons who are in this chapter, they are fifty-five: (١) the Prophet, (٢) the Imam, (٣) the Veil, (٤) the Simple, (٥) the Preceding, (٦) the Following, (٧) the Foundation, (٨) the Pillars, (٩) the Bearer ٩

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