ARABIC CHEMISTRY 259 



g. And melt them to a wax with a light fire. (You will attain your desires 



and your hopes.) 

 10 ; Do this three times, and be wise — ^the way to perfection is clear. 



11. To the product add pure quicksilver, if you desire success, and pour 



out the measure, 



12. Then plunge it repeatedly into the blaze, and do not be like an ignorant 



man in doing so. 



13. You will see it now as a safiron-yellow earth, delighting souls by the 



beauty of its excellence. 



14. With it you can tincture [other metals] into pure gold ; therefore be 



grateful to Him who supports the Heaven 



15. And glory to Him, the Giver, the Provider, Generous in giving to him 



who asks. 



16. And fear not the vicissitudes of Time, for thou art but temporal and in 



Time didst originate. 



17. And thou wilt attain what kings attain not. If thou seekest it, here is 



the goal. 



And this is the explanation of the Ode, and how to carry out the operation 

 thereby, if Allah will : 



Take one part of calcined shell and one part of washed, cut, and soft 

 human hair, and one part of white sal-ammoniac ; let the three be well 

 mixed by powdering on a fiat stone until they become like clay, and let 

 them be dissolved in the dissolving vessel familiar to scientists. Verily, they 

 will be dissolved to a deep red water which would dye when hot, or on 

 rubbing, except for the fact that it does not permeate. Then take an ounce 

 of good cinnabar and a mithqal of gold leaf, powder the cinnabar and the 

 gold above-mentioned, moisten them with the solution, and place them in 

 a " waxing " vessel (the joints of which have been securely closed) upon 

 moderately warm ashes. If the vessel above gets too hot, remove it from 

 the fire to get cool. Powder the product and moisten it in this way three times, 

 and do not open the vessel until it is cold, so that the colouring spirits may 

 not fly away from it. And when you have moistened it thus three times, 

 take it out and powder it well, and add to it an equal measure of well- 

 washed mercury. The mercury will be drunk up by the powder. Then 

 place the substance in the " burial apparatus " [this usually means a 

 hole in a rock, where the substance may cool well, and deliquesce if it be a 

 deliquescent substance], and leave it for a night under the vault of heaven. 

 You will then see that your product has become a homogeneous substance 

 in which there is no trace of the " slave " [a common alchemical term ; it 

 probably means mercury, but I am not quite sure of this]. It is now a yellow 

 earth ; preserve it, for if you project one part of it upon 45 [of silver or 

 other metal] it will turn them into pure gold. 



I have given this little work in full because it shows us very 

 clearly the kind of chemical phenomenon which appeared to 

 the alchemists to support their theory of transmutation. The 

 process above described (which is obviously based on experi- 

 mental work and observation) would result in an impure 

 amalgam of gold, mixed with metalhc sulphides and other 

 things ; the fusion of this with silver would result in a gold- 

 silver alloy, of a yellow colour and therefore resembling gold ; 

 for which it might easily be mistaken. 



