Secret of Secrets

Fourth: How it migrated from the Greek idiom into the Latin language, which we now have.

This book was composed by the author in the Greek idiom; but Joannes, a certain man, translated it from Greek into the Roman or Chaldean language, and afterwards it was translated from that by the same Joannes into Arabic. The preface of the same Joannes testifies to this, which has been corrected according to the reading of the most ancient codex in this manner:

Joannes, who translated this book, son of Patricius, a most skilled and faithful interpreter of languages, says: "I left no place nor temple in which philosophers were accustomed to compose and deposit their works and secrets that I did not visit; nor was there any most skilled man, whom I believed to have some knowledge of physical writings, whom I did not seek out, until I came to the oracle of the sun, which the Persians constructed for Aesculapius, in which I found a certain solitary man, abstinent, and most skilled in philosophy, to whom I humbled myself, and as much as I could, I served and entreated him devoutly, that he might show me the secret writings of that oracle; which he willingly handed over. Among the rest, I found the desired work, for which I had gone to that place, and I labored for a very long time; having obtained it, I returned home with joy, giving manifold thanks to the Creator, and at the petition of the most illustrious king, I labored, studied, and translated it first from Greek into Roman, then into Arabic. For in the beginning, as I found in that very codex, I translated the book of the most skilled Aristotle, in which he responds to the petition of King Alexander in this form."

We have said, however, disjunctively, that Joannes translated this from Greek into Roman or Chaldean speech, for the common