Natural Philosophy of Three Ancient Philosophers: Artephius, Flamel, and Synesius

...of liquefiable things, and it is a heavy, viscous, precious, and honored water, resolving all crude bodies into their first matter—that is, into earth and viscous powder, which is to say, into sulfur and quicksilver original: "sulphur et argentum viuum". If you then place any metal, whether filed or thinned, into that water and leave it for a time in a gentle heat, the whole will be dissolved and turned into a viscous water, or a white oil, as has been said. In this way, it softens the body and prepares it for fusion and liquefaction; indeed, it makes all things—both stones and metals—fusible, and afterward gives them spirit and life. It thus dissolves all things with a wonderful solution, converting the perfect body In alchemy, the "perfect body" refers to gold, the highest and most stable of the metals. into a medicine that is fusible, flowing, penetrating, and more fixed A "fixed" substance is one that has been rendered stable under heat and will no longer evaporate or change when placed in the fire., increasing its weight and color.

Work, therefore, with this water, and you will obtain from it what you desire. For it is the spirit and soul of the Sun and Moon The Sun and Moon are the traditional alchemical names for gold and silver, respectively., an oil, and a dissolving water, the fountain, the Bath of Mary Balneum Mariae: a vessel of water used to heat another container gently and evenly, similar to a modern double-boiler., a fire against nature, a moist fire, a secret fire—hidden and invisible—and a most sharp vinegar. Regarding this, a certain ancient philosopher said: "I asked the Lord, and He showed me a clear water, which I knew to be pure vinegar, altering, penetrating, and digesting." It is, I say, a penetrating vinegar, and the instrument that moves toward putrefying, resolving, and reducing gold or silver into its first matter. It is the only agent in the whole world in this art that can truly resolve and return metallic bodies to their crude state while preserving their species Maintaining the "species" means that the essential nature of the gold or silver is preserved even as its physical form is dissolved.. It is therefore the only suitable and natural medium through which we must resolve the perfect bodies of the Sun and Moon by a wonderful and solemn solution, preserving their species and without any destruction, except to bring them toward a new, nobler, and better form or generation: namely, into the perfect Stone of the Philosophers, which is their wonderful secret and mystery. This water is a certain middle substance, clear as pure silver, which must receive the tinctures A "tincture" refers to the spiritualized color or essence of a metal that has the power to transform other substances. of the Sun and Moon so that it may be congealed and converted into a white, living earth. For this water requires the perfect bodies so that, after dissolution, it may be congealed, fixed, and coagulated with them into a white earth. Their solution is also their congelation; for they have one and the same operation, because one is not dissolved without the other being congealed. Nor is there any other water that can dissolve the bodies except that which remains with them in matter and form; indeed, it cannot remain unless it is of the same nature as the other, so that they may become one together. When you see, therefore, the water coagulating itself with the bodies in it...