Several Authorities on Hieroglyphic Doctrine to be explained in the course of this Work.

Aristotle, in his mystical Theology according to the mind of the Egyptians, received by word of mouth from Plato. Book 14, Chapter 14.

original: "Theologia... iuxta mentem Aegyptiorum". This refers to the "Theology of Aristotle," a text actually based on Plotinus that was highly influential in the Renaissance and attributed to Aristotle.

The wise men of Babylon and Egypt, with sharpness of mind, looked into the species of the intellectual World, having embraced a knowledge either handed down from elsewhere or discovered by themselves, a profession which they claimed for themselves. Indeed, when they were about to relate something, they used intellectual doctrine, and not merely human methods like some others. Those who consulted them did not yet seem to themselves to learn firmly enough from opinions rendered in speech; therefore, they wrote down the concepts received in their minds—as we read with the evidence of our own eyes—upon stones through figures. They did the same in all sciences and arts, placing them in temples like pages to be read through; such were their useful books. They did this to indicate also that the immaterial acting intellect created all things according to the proper reason and likeness of each essence, which was a most excellent and beautiful teaching. Through this, I wish they would also indicate by what means they reached those wonderful and hidden forms, for thus their sacrament would be more worthy of praise—a condition which happens to few men.

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Iamblichus, in his book on the Mysteries of the Egyptians.

Iamblichus was a 4th-century Neoplatonist who defended theurgy (divine ritual) and Egyptian symbolism as a path to the divine.

The Egyptians, imitating the very nature of the universe and the fabric of the Gods, also display certain images of mystical and recondite notions in the making of symbols, just as nature expresses hidden reasons in apparent forms through symbols, and the Gods express the truth of ideas through manifest images.

Since they perceive, therefore, that all higher things delight in the likeness of lower things, and moreover desire to be filled with goodness from the higher powers so far as they may imitate them, they rightly offer a mode of acting suitable to the Higher Beings. They do this when they introduce the hidden mysteries of secret things into manifest symbols, in the interpretation of which: leave behind the words, and take the meanings. And on page 354: Now truly, they are not accustomed to contemplate these things with naked speech and reason; but they further admonish and teach that our nature progresses toward God himself, the Maker of the World, reaching toward things more excellent, more universal, and superior to fate; provided that it carries neither matter with it, nor anything else except the observation of the opportune time. They teach that we attain this through sacred works, and at the same time they bring it to pass. Mercury Hermes Trismegistus himself handed down this way to us, but the Prophet Bitis interpreted it for King Ammon, having found it in the inner sanctuaries of the temple in the city of Sais in Egypt. Inscribed in sacred letters—that is, hieroglyphics—it also provided us with the name of GOD which runs through the universe.

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Plotinus, Book 8 of the 5th Ennead, Chapter 6.

The wise men of the Egyptians also seem to me—whether they grasped it by accurate science or by an innate knowledge—to show forth through wisdom those things they wished to reveal. They did not use the forms of letters which travel through words and propositions, nor did they use the imitation of voices and the delivery of axioms; but by drawing images, and representing each individual thing...
original Greek: "Δοκοῦσι δέ μοι καὶ οἱ Αἰγυπτίων σόφοι..." Kircher provides the Greek text of Plotinus to argue that hieroglyphs represent direct "intellectual intuition" rather than phonetic language.