Book Four, chapter 2

1Chapter 2

2And let us return to our purpose in composing this book. So I say that a group of the learned men of the Kurds and the Abyssinians hold that the Moon diffuses the powers of the planets in the world, so they use sacrifices and invocations to it at its lodging in the signs, in operations of theirs which they compose on that [basis]. We had already mentioned to you what others have on that, but the aim is that I gather for you the speech of these people on that, and all that I mention is transferred from their tongue into the Arabic tongue. And they said: When wisdom and good governance come together, they are like sifted seed in good soil; and seldom is wisdom found except with perfection of intellect.

3The invocation of the Moon may take place at the time of its fullness, and at the time of its waning and of its conjunction with the Sun. If you wish to draw down the power of the Moon while it is in Aries, seek out the time of its rising at night full, for that is most effective for your need. Go to a green place with plants, on a river or a stream flowing to the east, and take with you a cock with a split comb, and slaughter it with a bone, and let no iron touch it; for this they have a cause.

4And face the Moon, and place before you two censers of iron, and put frankincense in them from time to time until it kindles, and stand between the two censers and say: O shining, joyous, majestic Moon, who has parted the darkness with his light, whose nobility is exalted, and who has covered the horizons with the light of his splendour: I have come to you humble, desiring such-and-such a matter.

5Then you walk ten steps while facing it, and say the like of what you said once more, and you set one of the two censers before you and put in it about four dirhams of storax, and burn that sacrifice. Then you draw these figures with the ash of your sacrifice and a little saffron on a cauliflower leaf, then burn them; for the moment their smoke rises, a person fine of dress and pleasing of aspect takes form for you at the place of the censer. Relate your matter to him, for he will fulfil it. And whenever you wish something after that, use what we have mentioned, for he will take form for you and fulfil your needs. And these are the figures mentioned: [figures]

6Drawing down the power of the Moon in the sign of Taurus

7Know that the Moon has an influence in each sign of these signs, and according to the measure of that influence you arrange operations for it. When it is in Taurus, go to a place of the description mentioned, and take out with you a cock, as I mentioned to you, and a censer. Then put on a linen garment dyed with līrūn [word uncertain] or with pomegranate rind, and put its sleeve on your head. Then draw near to a stone pot filled with water that has been boiled over walnut wood, and put your right hand into it and ladle from it and pour it on your left, and wash your hands, your face and your forearms — and beware lest your sleeve slip from your head — then wash your feet.

8And let there be with you a new mat on which no foot has trodden, edged with a border of linen striped with green and red. Then spring from your place into the middle of the mat and prostrate yourself on it with a prostration in which you say 'Rabqār Rabqār 'Ayqām 'Ayqām Ṭaqfūr Ṭaqfūr' twenty times. Then you rise, and humility will overcome you until the tears of your eyes flow. Then get up to the pot once more and wash as you did the first time; then slaughter your sacrifice and burn it while you repeat what I mentioned to you, and throughout all this you fumigate with frankincense and mastic; for you will see a person who will bring you what you want.

9And one who has occupied himself with this matter claimed that he had a friend against whom time had raged and whom it had impoverished; Saturn was the lord of his ascendant and the one in control of his deprivation. So he taught him the invocation of the Moon in the sign of Taurus; and he saw that person and asked him his need, and he brought him to a baqī' and said to him: Dig here. So he dug, and found that by which his condition was made complete, and he passed from his deprivation to ampleness.

10Drawing down its power in the sign of Gemini

11Go to a place where the wind blows, and let it be elevated, and take with you your sacrifice, which is a cock, and the incense, and a tube of copper yellow, pierced through, its measure three cubits, and a censer likewise of brass. Then kindle the fire with that reed in that censer; then put in it half a raṭl of storax; then put the end of the reed over what rises of the smoke, and align its other end with the circle of the Moon, so that the smoke comes out of it rising. Then fumigate with half an ūqiyya of frankincense and the like of it of ambergris, and do likewise with the reed. Then sit facing the censer, take the reed and extend it on all your sides, and strike the like of a circle with it, you being the centre of the circle.

12Then take seven handfuls of bean straw and put them in the middle of the circle in seven places. Then offer your sacrifice, then divide it into seven pieces and put each piece on a handful; then kindle the fire in them with that reed until they blaze and the sacrifice burns. Then stand in the midst of all that and say: "O shining Moon, great in authority, lofty in place, high in degree, governor of all this world, I ask you by your spiritual powers to do for me such-and-such." Then you fall down prostrate and say "Hīrūt Hīrūt Jarūth Jarūth" twenty times; then you raise your head, for there appears to you, as they claimed, at once a figure. So ask it your need, for it is guarantor of fulfilling it.

13Drawing down its power in the sign of Cancer

14You go up to a high place, such as an upper room that has an outlook onto open ground in which your view is wide. Then you look right and left, before and behind, with a zurrā'a or a pigeon in your hand. Then you slaughter it; then you take from its right wing four feathers, and from the other likewise, and from its tail likewise, and you cut off the tip of its [word uncertain: duqq, perhaps the beak]; then you burn the rest of it.

16And that figure is the image of a man on a lion. Then you stand with the figure before you, and you kindle a fire and fumigate while you say: "O Moon, who are filled with light, great in beauty and established in loftiness, to you I have raised my desire and to you I have sent my request." Then draw a circle on the ground and place the figure in its middle, after you have inscribed on it the name of the one whose inclination you want. Then repeat the words, then prostrate yourself and raise your head.

18For you do not, they claimed, fumigate with one of them and someone smells it, but that you attain from him what you desire, whether male or female. And the one who lays claim to this craft claimed that he tested it on one of his journeys, in a place with many lions, snakes and scorpions, and they would pass by him and not harm him.

19Attracting its power in the sign of Leo

20Go to level, uninhabited ground, with seven censers with you, and place them on that ground, the measure of a cubit between each one and the next, in a circle, you facing the Moon. Then put between every two censers a goose egg on which you have drawn [characters drawn in the text]. Then take a thick nail of yellow copper, three spans in length, and hold it in your right hand; and put on your head a yellow turban of wool, and wear a yellow shirt of wool. Then slaughter your offering, which is the cock with the split comb (al-dīk al-afraq), in the middle of the circle of censers; then burn it, divided, on the censers. Then take from its blood with the tip of the nail a drop after another; and put some of it in every censer, and likewise on every egg. Then count off two censers from the one facing you, and take the egg that is after the second, and put it before you, and strike it with your nail while you fumigate with frankincense and yellow sandalwood, and say: 'ʿAndab ʿAndab' fifteen times. For your companion will take visible form for you; so ask him about your affair: it will be settled at once. And do not be afraid on seeing him.

21Drawing its power in the sign of Virgo

22You take thirty white starlings and cook them, slaughtered, with their feathers, until they are done; then you take them out, their feathers having fallen off, and salt them with a moderate salting, and put them away. This should be thirty days before the Moon's entry into it [Virgo]. Then you eat one of them each day, after you have first fumigated it with the weight of a quarter dirham of saffron, and you eat nothing after it for six hours. You do this every day, and during these days you guard yourself from drinking wine.

23Then, when you have finished with that, you wash yourself with the water of an eastern spring, and put half a raṭl of the water of that spring into a flask that has been newly made, the Sun being in three [degrees] of Pisces and the Moon in seven of Aquarius, and stop its mouth with pitch that fire has not touched, a strong stopping. Then after that go out to attract the power of the Moon, and put before you a censer in which are al-kiyya and saffron, of each one the weight of an ūqiyya; and that in a spacious, empty place.

24Then say: 'O Moon, beautiful of aspect, boundless in giving, great in loftiness, by whose light the darknesses shine, and the souls rejoice, and by whose splendour the hearts are gladdened: on you is my reliance in such-and-such a matter.' Then you stretch out your left hand to the flask and say: 'ʿAfūṭ ʿAfūṭ', and you dig in the earth with your right hand, and each time you dig you repeat that name, until

25the digging reaches the measure of a cubit. Then put the flask in it, with its mouth towards the south, at the side of the pit, and you cast upon it handful after handful of earth, and you repeat that name until the ground is level. Then with a needle of gold you draw on a piece of lead the image of the one whom you want, and bury it at the head of that pit. The moment you do that, you attain what is desired.

26Drawing its power in the sign of Libra

27You gird yourself with a girdle of a cord of dīs whose origin was in the water, and you set out for the bank of an eastern river, and offer your offering, and run along it going against its current, and you look at the Moon, with a bow of copper that has been made in your hand, Venus being retrograde in Taurus and Mercury in Aries. You do that five times, going back and going on. Then you throw that bow into the river and say: 'O glorious, beautiful Moon, to you I have sent it and for your pleasure I have made it; for you are able to fulfil my need and the completion of my hope.'

28Then kindle a fire of the dughālā tree and put storax in it. Then you go round the fire at a trot, holding your breath; and where the breath gives out, stop, and draw from that place a line in the earth to the fire, and write upon the line: 'Ghanīṭīʿ Ghanīṭīʿ'. Then take that earth in which you drew the name, and add to it its like of clay of the open land, and knead them with still water, and make from that two images, your image and the image of the one you love, if you wish for love, embracing each other. The moment your shaping of the two is complete, that comes about without delay.

29Attracting its power in the sign of Scorpio

30You rise, when the Moon is [in] thirteen degree of Scorpio, to a place thick with trees and abundant in waters, and trace on the ground a square figure, and spread in it walnut leaves, quince leaves and dīs, and sprinkle them with rose water. Then place before you seven censers of silver, and put in each censer as much as you can of moist aloeswood, storax and frankincense.

31Then you put on a white garment without a border-mark and without a neck-opening, and place before you two earthenware basins filled with water, and take a small cup and put from this one into this one behind your back; and whenever you have put from this one into this one, you put from this one into this one. Then you offer your offering from what is of its portion.

32Then you step forward and prostrate four prostrations, saying in each one: Sharāfīhā sharāfīhā. And you sit, and repeat the casting of aloeswood, frankincense and storax into the censers. Then you prostrate four more prostrations, and you will see a figure complete in form speaking to you. So ask him what you wish of your affairs; you will obtain them.

33Drawing down its power in the sign of Sagittarius. It is, among them, difficult of attainment, combining the work of temples and talismans and the obtaining of treasures. You aim for Mercury's being in four degrees of Cancer. Take ten raṭl of yellow copper and make of it five serpents, and divide what remains of the degrees of the sign over the completion of the five; and when they are complete you take them

34and bring them to a clear river, and draw off from it a channel, and divide that channel into five channels, and place in each channel a serpent; all of them are pierced through, so that the water enters at their tails and comes out at their mouths. And you prepare five skins and place them at their mouths.

35Whenever an hour passes, you take that water which the serpents cast out, and you leave them an hour pouring onto the ground, until the skins are filled with that water in this order. Then you take all that and go up to a distance of twenty cubits from that river, and set the skins on the ground, and pierce each skin with a needle, and dig a pit, and let some of the water run into it.

36And you stand at the time the water runs, and place opposite each skin a serpent; then you go quickly to the river and look at the Moon in it; then you take in your mouth as much of the water as it holds, and run to the skins, and pour some of it out over each skin and serpent; and you place at each serpent's head a censer of silver and cast into it moist aloeswood, nadd and ambergris, and do not stop the fumigation until all the water in the skins is spent.

37Then take the serpents and put them in the skins, and bury them in the pit, and stand upon the place, and slaughter your offering, and prostrate fifteen prostrations, and say on raising your head from each prostration: Harqūm harqūm, five times. Then you will obtain your need at once, in that a figure appears to you in the best form, carrying you from that very hour wherever you wish, of the east of the earth and its west.

38I had a friend who did what I have mentioned for this sign, and that figure came to him. His aim was a talisman by which to extract treasures. So he carried him to a place that no one had seen, and brought him a copper image in the shape of the elephant, and in his hand [pronoun ambiguous: the figure's or the image's] an iron key, which he had placed under its feet; and he said to him: Take this elephant and walk with it wherever you wish; wherever the key falls from its foot to the ground, that is the place of a treasure.

39So he took it, and he had walked with it no more than about four cubits when the key fell; and he found an underground passage and walked in it, and it led him to a great chamber filled with chests of gold and silver and rubies; and he carried off from it what he needed, and went back to it again as often as he wished.

40Drawing down its power in the sign of Capricorn. You build a house that holds two persons, no more, while the Sun is in Cancer, and spread it with fresh sweet herbs for a period of seven days, changing the sweet herbs each day, and you fumigate with aloeswood and frankincense after the afternoon prayer each day; and when the seven days are complete, you enter it, while you wear a beautiful red garment; and let the house have a barrier which you remove whenever you wish, a board or something else. Then you say: Hayāwum hayāwum, bulghār bulghār, naqrāw naqrāw. Then you go out and walk around it seventy times. Then you take two ūqiyyas of aloeswood and fumigate with it in a censer of silver; you put it all at once in the middle of the censer, and you go out and walk around it seventy times more.

41Then you bring forward your offering, then you enter; for when you enter the house you will find a figure sitting. Say to him: 'By the right of the shining, fair, beautiful Moon upon you, do nothing but speak to me!' Ask him this three times, and he will speak to you about what you want; so relate your need to him.

42This chapter is most often used in love. One who performed this chapter told me that he had sold a slave-girl, then regretted that, and a great desolation for her overtook him, and an intense passion; and he sought to turn it away and was not able, and he contrived with all kinds of stratagems, but they wore him out. So he did this which I have mentioned, and aversion to her fell into the soul of the one who had bought her, and he sent to him wishing to return her. And there was shrewdness in him, so he refused to accept her from him until he bought her from him at a low price.

43Its pivot is upon making the preliminaries good and acting as is required, by abandoning such wrongdoing as is not to be borne; and conceal yourself as far as you can from appearing to the light of the Moon while you are impure or touch something impure.

44It happened at one time to a man that he set about drawing down the power of the Moon in ignorance on his part of that, so he took other than the road, rushing into what was not fitting for him, while he held intimate converse with it every night. And when it was a certain night, a figure met him with a thing which it put into his mouth, and his mouth was closed up, until it was as if he had no mouth; and he remained forty hours in a state that description falls short of, of agitation and terror, until he died.

45Drawing down its power in the sign of Aquarius

46They said that the preliminaries of these operations are more excellent than they; but if the two come together, there is in that the completion of the work that is hoped for, and if they do not come together, there is toil and the risking of one's soul. There befell people who did not perform the intimate converse well such lessons and wonders as would take long to describe; and I have mentioned a portion of that so that you may beware of it, and none should approach it except one whose soul is strong and whose substance is noble.

47Then he claimed that on the Sea of al-Qulzum, while he was travelling over its deeps upon the water, thinking that no one could go there with ships, let alone on the face of the water, he met a man walking, going more than his going. So he called to him, but he did not answer him. He said: So I followed his track, leaving my route, and hastened after him; and when I had nearly caught up with him, he turned his face to me and said to me: 'What is the matter with you?' I told him the story, and he said to me: 'It is about a hundred years since I became able to do this, and other things; and that is through intimate converse with the Moon.'

48Then he said: 'I have, for whoever wants to harm me on land and sea, something because of which no one can reach me.' So I said to him: 'And what is it?' He said to me: 'This.' And he took in his hand a handful of water from between his feet and threw it before him, and behold, it was a flame of fire burning whatever it passed, and it passed through the sea before me until it vanished from my sight, plunging into the water one time and appearing another. And he said: 'And thus I do on land.' So I asked him about that, and he said to me: 'This is the doing of Sarghāṭūm, servant of the Moon, when it is in the sign of Aquarius.'

49If you want intimate converse with him in the sign of Aquarius, take the heads of three male geese and cook them in old wine until they fall apart, and pound them in a mortar of iron or lead, the Moon being in Cancer, until it becomes a paste; and add to it half a raṭl of cinnamon, two ūqiyyas of sandalwood, half a raṭl of dry storax, a quarter raṭl of frankincense and a little tragacanth, and knead the whole with the wine in which the heads were cooked, and make from that forty cakes, and fry them in an iron pan until they dry. Then you go out with them to the open country on a moonlit night, with the Moon in Aquarius, and you place before you fifteen braziers of yellow copper and silver; and if you are able that there be among them [some] of gold, [do so]; otherwise it suffices you. And you throw into each brazier a cake of those cakes, and offer your gift; for the moment the smoke rises you will see a figure appearing at one time and vanishing at another. Then take three of the cakes and throw them into the fire towards him, then say: "Ḥanṭar asrik, ḥanṭar asrik," ten times; for he will come to you and teach you what benefits you.

50Drawing down his power in the sign of Pisces. You extract juice of Nabataean cabbage and take a part of it, and that is the weight of a raṭl; and a fifth of a raṭl of lettuce juice, and a little colocasia juice. You mix that and extract them while the Sun is in Virgo and Mercury is in direct motion, and that [is done] in a marble mortar. And add to it four dirhams of mastic, two dirhams of ambergris and two dirhams of camphor,

51and an ūqiyya of sukk and ten dirhams of anzarūt, after grinding what must be ground, and half a raṭl of the blood of a fawn slaughtered with a knife of yellow copper. When the whole is mixed, you put it in a glass vessel; then go to a place in which there is a spring of water, and put the glass vessel on the edge of the water. And take a brazier which you have prepared and brought with you, and put it on a rock in the middle of the spring, with the water surrounding it, and kindle the fire in it. When it has kindled, you open the mouth of the vessel, then put some of what is in it into the brazier, little by little, time after time, and offer your gift to him; for this incense brings you the servant of the Moon in this sign. So ask him your need, for he will bring you to your desire.

52And these works have, among them, causes and reasons whose explanation would be long; they have inherited them among themselves from their ancients, and have passed their operations from hand to hand since ancient times. So know that.

53The Indians also have works which they call qalfaṭīriyyāt, and they are for the seven planets; each work of them they direct to what the nature of its planet requires. Saturn: among them he has a fast of seven days, from the day of the Sun to his day. Then on the seventh day you slaughter for him a black crow, then you say: "In the name of the king Ishbīl, appointed over Saturn, by the right of the Master of the highest edifice, do but execute my command and fulfil my need." Then direct the qalfaṭīriyyāt to whatever you wish. Their images among them are: [figures printed in the text].

54Jupiter: he has a fast of seven days, from the day of Venus to his day. Then you slaughter for him a lamb and eat its liver, and you say: "O Rūfiyā'īl, you are the angel appointed over Jupiter, the fortunate, the righteous, the complete, the fair; by the right of the Lord of the Highest Edifice, do but answer my call and fulfil my need in what I ask of you." Then direct the qalfaṭīriyyāt to whatever you wish. And this is their image: [figures printed in the text].

55Mars: for him there is a fast of seven days, from the day of Mercury to his day; then you sacrifice to him a spotted cat and eat its liver, and you say: "O Yanāyil, the angel appointed over Mars, the fierce, the fiery horseman, the kindled: by the right of the Lord of the Highest Edifice, [I adjure you] that you accomplish for me such-and-such." And employ his qalfaṭīriyyāt in whatever you wish. And this is their image:

56The Sun: for her there is a fast of seven days, from the day of the Moon to her day; then you sacrifice to her a small calf and eat its liver, and you say: "O Bāyil, the angel appointed over the Sun, the shining, who sets the world in order, possessor of light and of perfect radiance, who makes fortunate and makes unfortunate, who benefits and harms: by the right of the Lord of the Highest Edifice, [I adjure you] that you do for me such-and-such." Then employ her characters in whatever you want. And this is their image:

57Venus: for her there is a fast of seven days, from the day of Saturn to her day; then you sacrifice to her a white dove and eat its liver on the seventh day, and you say: "O Bayṭā'īl, the angel appointed over Venus, the fortunate, beautiful star: by the right of the Lord of the Highest Edifice, [I adjure you] that you do for me such-and-such." Then employ her characters in whatever you want. And this is their image:

58Mercury: for him there is a fast of seven days, from the day of Jupiter to his day; then you sacrifice to him a black or white cock and eat its liver, while you say: "O Harqīl, the angel appointed over Mercury, the fortunate, the noble, possessor of the fine disposition: by the right of the Lord of the Highest Edifice, [I adjure you] that you do for me such-and-such." Then employ his characters in whatever you want. And this is their image:

59The Moon: for him there is a fast of seven days, from the day of Mars to his day; then on the seventh day you sacrifice to him a ewe and eat its liver, while you say: "O Salyā'īl, the angel appointed over the Moon, key of the stars and their head, the light, the swift: by the right of the Lord of the Highest Edifice, [I adjure you] that you do for me such-and-such." Then employ his characters in whatever you want. And this is their image:

60This, then, is what I have seen of theirs; and they have, besides that, many works in magic, of wondrous fumigations and marvellous talismans. And the Nabataeans, of old—and they are the Syrians who dwell in al-Shām—are the most capable of people in this matter. Ibn Waḥshiyya has mentioned of theirs, in the book al-Filāḥa ('Agriculture') translated from them, things of which we shall mention what you will come upon after this.