Preface.

...essence are one, and the Universal Mercury Mercurius Universalis; in alchemy, the "spirit" or prime matter that exists within all things is [the same], by which the Author Auctor; Latin for author explains and presents the wondrous divine mystery of the most holy Trinity so beautifully—and in a way that no one has ever done before him using nature. He establishes the first original source of this Salt as Heavens original Hebrew: שמים (Schamajim), which has its first outflow and origin from GOD; the heavens are as a pure Salt, because this word is composed of Fire original Hebrew: אש (Æsch) and Water original Hebrew: מים (Majim) (both of which represent the nature of Salt). For although a critic or philologist might have much to point out and object to regarding this Hebrew composition of the word for "Heavens" from "Fire" and "Water"—notably that the Hebrew language does not easily permit compound words original: "Composita in denen Nominibus appellativis"; Latin for compound common nouns—and though this aforementioned composition of the word for "Heavens" is just as reluctantly accepted by learned Christians and Jews as those who derive it from there original Hebrew: שם (Scham) and water, or from astonishment original Hebrew: שאה (Schaah) and water (because the waters stand above in an astonishing way), but would rather grant its origin, along with Rabbi Ibn Ezra Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1167), a renowned Sephardic scholar and grammarian, to the Arabic root word meaning to be high original: "שח" (shach); nevertheless, our Author—from whom one cannot expect prætendiren; to demand or expect such word-splitting—had good reason to prefer the composition from Fire and Water. This is because it comes closest not only to his purpose, but to the true nature of the subject itself of which he treats; furthermore, the ancient Rabbis who were knowledgeable in the true Kabbalah Cabbala; a Jewish mystical tradition used here to find hidden meanings in the structure of words derived this word from Fire and Water themselves, as the Author refers to on page 2.

The highly-praised noble person mentioned earlier—whose great experience in Mathematics Mathesi; here referring to the broad study of mathematical and natural sciences and Nature was already lauded above—has firmly assured us that he saw the signature of the Salt (of which the Author makes mention on page 37) with his own eyes. Specifically, he found the Cube Cubum; a geometric shape representing the stability of the element Earth in alchemy, as can be seen in figure number 15 on the copperplate of the Great Kabbalistic Work original: "Op. Mag. Cab. dd."; likely referring to the Opus Magno-Cabbalisticum, as well as the 12 triangular pyramids as they are described. Likewise, he saw the mystical signature mentioned on pages 38, 39, and 40, and shown in numbers 16 through 34 on the copperplate of the Great Kabbalistic Work, which signature—particularly number 24 there, as well as on plate bb, numbers 10 and 11—contains within itself not only the mystery of all nature but also the foundation of all mathematics. This is certainly wonderful and well worth contemplating zuponderiren; from Latin 'ponderare,' to weigh or consider deeply. It also shows from what source the ancients drew all sciences before anything was recorded in writing: namely, from the great book of Nature itself.

From these and other observed true signs, it is easy to judge that everything the Author has written in the first three chapters concerning Salts Salien; refers to saline substances or the essential alchemical principle of Salt is the pure, clear