Image: Ibn Umayl The Silvery Water

Description: Illustration from a transcript of Muhammed ibn Umail al-Tamimi’s book Al-mâ' al-waraqî (The Silvery Water), also called Senioris Zadith tabula chymica. In which Ibn Umail describes a statue of a sage holding the tablet of ancient alchemical knowledge. He writes that it stands in an Egyptian temple painted with murals of people pointing and eagles carrying bows. And that the temple is Sidr wa-Abu Sîr, the Prison of Yasuf, where Joseph learned how to interpret the dreams of the Pharoah (Koran: 12 Yusuf and Genesis: 41]. Many of the notes written around the tablet, called the Letter from the Sun to the Moon, are mathematical relationships between the hieroglyphs. But some of the notes are comments by the scribe: that the sun is the spirit (al-ruh) and the moon is the soul (al-nafs); and of the interlocking birds that the female is the spirit extracted from the male.
Usage Terms: Public domain