Two Dialogues on Alchemy

...metals should be whitened and stripped of all burning oiliness. For this reason, Avicenna Ibn Sina (c. 980–1037), a Persian polymath whose works on medicine and minerals were foundational to medieval Latin alchemy. considered this substance most suitable for conversion into its own quicksilver quicksilver: mercury. However, when green sulfur is made pure and clear through preparation, taking on a reddish hue, it contains a fiery power that does not burn. He thought this most suitable for chemists when making gold, and indeed it is called gold.

DEMO: I long to hear in what way this double vapor can penetrate through stones and rocks?

GEBER: These two vaporous exhalations are drawn up by celestial heat. When they find an open place on the earth from which they can exhale darkly, they are drawn into the air. There they are converted into comets or falling stars. They also become the circles seen around the Sun and Moon, or rainbows, winds, thunder, lightning, clouds, mists, hail, snow, frost, rust, and similar appearances in the air. Aristotle taught this in his Meteorology original: "Aristoteles in Metheo." Aristotle's Meteorology was the standard textbook for atmospheric and geological phenomena in the Middle Ages., and all other philosophers have confirmed it. However, if the place is narrow and so constricted that no exit is open for the natural heat or the double smoke, then these two vaporous exhalations begin to thicken and multiply. They are dispersed throughout the mineral site, seeking an exit through small cracks, as Albertus Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280), a Dominican friar known for his scientific observations and his book "De Mineralibus" (On Minerals). taught in his book on minerals. These vapors, when enclosed in stony places, are called mineral media or the remote matter of metals. Saint Thomas Thomas Aquinas, who wrote influential commentaries on Aristotle's works regarding the natural world. taught this at the end of the third book of Meteorology.

DEMO: It remains now for you to reveal your opinion on the immediate principles. How are these two vapors converted into metal as they penetrate the rock?

GEBER: When these vapors penetrate the stone but do not find washed sulfur, the stone becomes stained with various colors, and no metal is generated there. If this smoke or vapor falls into some part of the stone and cannot descend deeper into another place, it settles there. It creates a well of water that will never dry up. If this vapor or smoke falls into red earth, it is converted there into common quicksilver. Thus, by penetrating rocks, if it finds washed sulfur, it treats it as if it were fixed...