Two Dialogues on Alchemy

DEMO: Therefore, two types of sulfur flow together in the generation of metals: namely, the sulfur released from vitriol, and that which you call washed sulfur, which is found in rocks and mineral places.

GEBER: In chapter 12 of the first book, toward the end, we said that the natural principles of metals are three: sulfur, arsenic, and quicksilver quicksilver: mercury. Avicenna spoke of these two types of sulfur in his book on minerals under the name of ink original: "atramenti nomine." In alchemy, "atramentum" or "ink" often refers to vitriol or dark mineral salts used for dyes and blackening.. He said that inks are composed of salt, sulfur, and stone, and so on. Just as cloth is dyed with common vitriol, so by a certain similarity these two types of sulfur are the light and the dye of metals. Therefore, you will not have erred if you call them vitriols or inks. This is why we said above that different types of vitriol can be extracted from imperfect metals. These are both useful and necessary to us. The sulfur generated in rock is composed of sulfur and stone. But that which is released from vitriol is composed of salt and sulfur. In this latter sulfur lies the mineral power of certain meltable bodies, which are generated from sulfur of this kind.

See: if ... read too much book 5, chapter 1

However, sulfur generated in rock does not dissolve because it does not have the nature of salt. But a saltiness dissolves together with the sulfur itself. This saltiness is enclosed in the depths of the salt itself, and is later thickened through boiling decoction: the process of boiling down or concentrating a substance. These types of metallic sulfur have already received the mineral power to generate metals in certain metallic bodies. This happens especially in one body, in which they contain the power of iron and the power of copper æream: related to copper or bronze. Sometimes they also acquire the nature of gold and silver, and they are occasionally called gold or silver. That which was born in the rock finds the power of iron in its metal. Before washing, it is red or saffron colored. It has the property of iron and is called iron. But that which is enclosed in vitriol or salt is green before preparation, like common vitriol. In metal it acquired the power of copper and the property of copper. For this reason, it is called copper, or Venus, or verdigris original: "uiride æris," literally "green of copper," used as a pigment and chemical reagent.. These two types of sulfur can be extracted from metals by art. When this sulfur, called iron, in its preparation, like silver,