AN ALCHEMICAL COMPILATION OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY, A.D. 
67 
I have fully completed for you the First and Second Books, and there follows the 
Third Book in which I shall explain to you, O philosophers, the reddening of sub- 
stances that have been already whitened and will also reveal to you secrets in my 
explanation.’ 1 
Book III (Folio 61 v., 1 . 13). 
1. The Reddening of Rasas (Tin). 
2. Explanation of Red Arsenic. 
3. On the preparation of Arnuk. 
4. Mercury and its reddening. 
5. On the explanation of Red Copper' 2 3 * * (includes reference to Abulun — Apol- 
lonius 8 * * * * * — and his ‘Precious Secret’). Also the following disconnected note as con- 
cluding sentence. “ These books were translated during the Governorship of 
Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan in the Second Rabl‘ of the year 38 HijrcB.” 41 
6. On reddened Iron, and its preparation. 
7. c Buritls, which is MarqasAitAa.’ (Another reference to Apollonius, the 
Sage). 
8. On Yellow Arsenic. 
9. On the Athali of Sulphur. 
Book IV (Folio 64 v., 1 . 15). 
“ The Fourth Book which deals with the ‘ Water of Sulphurs ’ 6 * and the making 
of Qinbarun .” 
1. On the ‘ Water of Sulphurs.’ 
2. On Qinbarun. 
3. Description of the proper strength of fires. 15 
4. Reddening of Rasas. 
5. Conclusion of the section on Fires. 
6. On Farfir (preparation from urine). 1 
1 For Arabic text, cf. later, X (b). 
2 Cf. for another preparation of red copper by Zosimus, B., La Chimie, II, p. 227. 
3 Apollonius of Tyana, who lived from B.C. 4 to c. A.D. 96, and who (according to the Fihrist, p. 312) was the 
first to give any account of talismans. Philostratus, who published a so-called life of Apollonius in A.D. 218, does not 
specially refer to Apollonius being an alchemist, but several quotations from his works are made by Ar-RazT in the 
Shawdhid ( vide infra), including the aphorism quoted by Zosimus at the beginning of the 6th Book of the present 
treatise. 
+ For Arabic text, vide later, X (c). Mu‘ awiyah was certainly Governor of Damascus in 38 A.H., but it is hardly prob- 
able that translation work into Arabic had started at such an early date. The fact may, however, be recalled that it was 
precisely at this time that Stephanos of Alexandria was composing his alchemical treatise for Heraclius ( vide p. 5, note 
(2), supra. 
6 Another 3rd Centu.y receipt for the preparation of Water of Sulphur’ (Calcium polysulphide) is to be found in 
Berthelot’s translation of the Beyden Papyrus X (Introd., p. 46 ; and Arch, et Hist, des Sciences, pp. 299-301 ; cf. also infra, 
p. 20). 
s For another chapter by Zosimus on Fires, cf. Coll., trails., p. 240. Olympiodorus also bears witness (B., Coll., p. 85) 
to the importance Zosimus and Democritos paid to the proper strength of the fire in alchemical operations. 
I For early methods of making such purple solutions for alchemical use cf. B., Introd., pp. 48 and 49 (quoting from 
the 3rd Century Beyden papyrus), and Coll., trans., I, pp. 43 and 44 (quoting from a treatise assigned to Democritos). 
In the latter urine was also employed. 
