Page 34 - Book of Crates

the bodies. As for the bodies, they are thick; they can neither penetrate,
nor spread themselves in another body. It is for that reason that the
tincture does not increase in any way the weight of a body; because
what tincts it is a spirit that does not have a weight.

“There are people who, when they pour poison on silver leave it
one hour, others two hours, others three, others four. Each lets the
poison act according to the knowledge that he has of its strength, and in
such a way that it penetrates into the silver and tincts it, and that silver
absorbs it. It is this nature that one names ouilâda (birth), life and
tincture. We gave it this name because the poison, while meeting in the
tincting sprit that is constituted by the mud (previous), becomes in its
turn a spirit, within the compound with which it unites. When this
substance penetrated the living silver, it lives on in its way, which
appears to the eyes as the appearance of the colour.

“Thus one places in the writings the seven letters by specifying that
five of them have no sound. As soon as it entered the body, this
substance makes it live and it lives itself there, as soon as it tinged it.
There are sometimes tinctures that give more varied and more beautiful
colours; but that is due to perfection of the operation, the duration of
heat, the coction, or even to the great number of washings.”

Now, I have unveiled in this book the science of the poison. I said
how we operate with it, how it tinctures and how it combines itself.
The intelligent people were able in a way to see it themselves. I cleared
up certain things, to which the philosophers had given proper names to
divert the vulgar.

I tried then to explain the extraordinary things that the philosophers
had described, so that my book prevailed over all others works, and
waited until I would have in my possession the key of many things and
their demonstration. Finally I wanted to know what the philosophers
said about the tincting of the bodies by the bodies.

He answered me: “The rust only comes from sulphurs. Indeed, any
combination leads to wet particles and dry particles. As for the dry
particles, they consist of the mixture of the copper with copper, and of

30