On the Consideration of the Quintessence

The science for discerning how perfect is the fifth essence, which is not subject to the corruption of the four elements and which is not hot in itself, nor humid according to its measure, nor cold as are the four elements. But it is as the heaven is with the stars and acts primally through its own adornment.

In a circulatory vessel arranged above and below for circular distillation, with the aperture of the vessel which is in the body fixed with a seal applied and dissolved properly, prepare [the seal] through the preparation of the white of an egg and of the white of another egg, and bind it most diligently with wrapped paper so that in no way may it breathe in any manner. And then, if it shall have opened and a certain odor, marvelous above all so that no fragrance may be compared to it, has exhaled, which shall seem to you to have descended as if from the highest heaven of the glory of the highest God onto the earth—which through the gates of the Lord in the little vessel is given from this fragrance—it is most to be wondered at. It draws to itself every mortal corruptible thing of all the creatures of the Creator. Then you shall have the fifth essence, which, when burned, has nothing for any work.