Marengus — Secrets of Chemical Pallas Revealed, ca. 1700

Truly the closest things are terra foliata foliated earth, the purified solid matter of the work and philosophical quicksilver dissolved and distilled together. For the quicksilver of the philosophers, or the water of the medium substance animated by the sun original: "sole animata", is called the feminine seed. Philosophical gold, or foliated earth, is called the masculine seed. From these two seeds mixed together, the stone is composed and generated.

Morienes says that three things compose the stone: namely, white smoke, the green lion, and stinking water. Fumus albus white smoke is the medium substance turned into water. Leo uiridis the green lion is calcined gold dissolved in the water of the medium substance; for yellow joined to white shows a certain greenness. Aqua foetida stinking water consists of these two waters mixed together and putrefied.

The Stone is called sulfur of sulfurs, ash of ashes, and sulfur extracted from the hollow of the moon. It is called sulphur de sulphuribus sulfur of sulfurs because it is made from calcined gold, which is called sulfur, and likewise from foliated earth, which is called sulfur. Similarly, in the reiteration and multiplication of the work, it is made from the cooked stone itself, which is also named sulfur. It is likewise called cinis de cineribus ash of ashes because the cooked stone is ash, it is powder, or at least can be pulverized. It is from ashes because it comes from the ashes of calcined gold original: "solis calcinati". Likewise, it comes from the ashes of the element of earth. Finally, in the repetition of the work, it is drawn out and composed from the ashes of the stone already cooked. Finally, it is called sulfur extracted from the hollow of the moon because it is extracted from the quicksilver of the philosophers through sublimation vaporization and solidification.

The hidden becomes manifest in the decoction cooking or boiling, and the manifest becomes hidden. This is because while the gold is dissolved in the quicksilver, the gold is then hidden in it; but in the sublimation of the foliated earth, the gold is made manifest. Likewise, while the foliated earth or the stone is dissolved in its animated water, it is hidden in it, but again in

again in the cooking it is made manifest.

Concerning the many ways of making the Philosopher's Stone.

Although many believe that the ancient philosophers proceeded in the making of the stone in a common manner, because they made no mention of the physical solution of metals nor of perfect menstruums solvents used in alchemy, they are not a little deceived. For these sayings were not hidden from those ancients, yet they hid them by design so that this most excellent art would be open only to the worthy and the studious. However, it is true that not everyone traveled by the same path, even if all aimed for the same goal and finally arrived there happily, as will be clear from what is to be said. The method of the ancients shall be explained briefly and clearly in this and following ways, so that no one loses their labor in working, wastes their expenses, and falls into desperate poverty.

First way of making the stone. Take original: ℞, the recipe symbol used for "recipe" or "take" at least two pounds of unadulterated quicksilver, very well purified of its blackness and its arsenical water. Then take two ounces of the purest gold, well and commonly calcined. Afterward, mix one ounce of said gold with twelve ounces of said mercury, and pound them together in a mortar with a glass pestle. Make them pass together through a linen cloth, and then through leather. Filter it by pressing with the fingers through the leather as many times as needed so that all the gold passes through the leather together with the mercury. Then digest them together in a vapor bath for some days, such as forty days. A certain blackness will appear on the surface, which will be the sign of putrefaction and the perfect mixing of the gold with the mercury. Then filter it through leather again. Afterward, distill it through a low and tilted retort, putting that which was distilled back over that which was not distilled, cohobating repeatedly distilling a liquid off the solid matter from which it was just distilled, so that all are distilled together. Thus you will have the quicksilver, or mercury of the philosophers, and it is a double mercury