The Heaven of the Philosophers, or the Book of Vexations

but lives from a hot and fiery nature: Whatever is vivid is also fiery: because heat is life, but cold is the cause and occasion of death. The Sun is pure fire of itself, yet it is not alive, but hard, and demonstrates only the color of sulfur, such as yellow and red, mixed in it proportionally.

51. The five cold metals are Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Luna, which bestow their virtues upon the Sun, namely: according to coldness, the body itself: according to fire, the color: according to dryness, the hardness: according to humidity, the weight or gravity: and from splendor, the resonance.

52. But that the Sun, when placed into terrestrial fire, is not burned nor even corrupted, the consistency of the Sun itself effects this: For one fire cannot burn another: but rather, if fire approaches fire, it is increased and becomes more powerful in its operations.

53. The celestial fire sent down from the Sun into terrestrial things is not then such a fire as exists in the Heaven, nor is it similar to our common fire: but that celestial fire, among us, is a cold, rigid, and frozen fire, that is, the body of the Sun or Gold. Wherefore the Sun or Gold can in no way be overcome by our common fire, but only liquefied, just as snow is liquefied into water by that same celestial fire or Sun. Therefore, fire does not have the power to burn fire: because the Sun or Gold is fire; which exists released in Heaven, but frozen among us.

A schematic diagram depicts the triple essence of gold. On the left, the text "Gold is triple in essence" is bracketed to three numbered items: "1 Celestial", "2 Elemental", and "3 Metallic". These items are then bracketed to the word "is", which in turn is bracketed to three corresponding states: "Dissolved", "fluid", and "Corporeal".