The Third Parable

Avicenna speaks in the Chapter

concerning the moistures: when heat works within a moist body, it first gives birth to a blackness. For this reason, the ancient sages saw from afar a mist rising up that passed over and blackened the entire earth; they also saw the turbulence of the sea and the flowing of waters over the face of the earth, and saw these same things become foul and stinking in the darkness.
stannus Latin: tin. In alchemy, tin is often associated with the planet Jupiter and specific stages of purification. They also saw the King of the Earth sink down, and heard him cry out with a longing, lovely voice: "He who delivers me will live and reign with me eternally in my clarity upon my royal throne." And night surrounded all things. On the next day, they saw a bright morning star rise over the King. And the light of day [pierced] the dark-

-ness, the clear sun shining through the clouds in many kinds of colored forms, piercing through with its streams and brilliance. And a fragrant scent, sweeter than all others, rose up from the earth, and the sun shone clearly. In that moment, the time was fulfilled in which the King of all the earth was redeemed and renewed, well-adorned and entirely beautiful, at whose beauty the Sun and Moon marveled. He was crowned with three precious crowns: one made of iron, the second of silver, the third of pure gold. They saw in his right hand a scepter with seven stars, which all gave off a golden luster; and in his left hand, a golden apple, and upon it sat a white dove whose feathers were silvered and whose wings were gold-colored. Of this, Aristotle has well spoken thus: "The destruction of any one thing is the birth of another." original: "corruptio unius est generatio alterius" - a fundamental principle of Aristotelian physics applied here to alchemical transmutation. This is as much as to say, regarding this masterful art: rob [the substance] of its destructive moisture and nourish it with its essential moisture, which shall be its perfection and life.