Book Four, chapter 3

1Chapter 3

2And among those who concerned themselves with this matter is a people called the Copts, and they are the most knowledgeable of all people in this science. And they are the ones who say that the first Hermes built a house of statues by which [reading uncertain: he knew / there was known] the measures of the Nile at the Mountain of the Moon, and he made a temple for the Sun there. He used to hide from people, so that they did not see him while he was with them.

3He is the one who built the eastern city of Egypt; its length was twelve miles. He set in it a fortress with four gates on its four sides, and he made on the eastern gate the image of an eagle, on the western gate the image of a bull, on the northern gate the image of a lion, and on the southern gate the image of a dog.

4And he made the spiritual powers (rūḥāniyyāt) dwell in them, so that they would speak when anyone approached them, and terrifying voices were heard from them, so that no one dared to come near them except with the permission of the one appointed over them. And he planted in it a great tree bearing every kind of fruit.

5And he set at the top of the castle a tower thirty cubits high, and on its top a dome that took on a colour each day until seven days had passed; then it returned to the first colour, and it clothed the city from that colour with a new colour. And he set much water around the tower and bred fish in it, and he set around the city talismans of every kind which warded off harms from its people.

6It was called the city of al-Ashmūnayn, and this is also mentioned in the "Reports of Egypt". These people, I mean the Copts, dwell in Egypt, and they are the ones who know the reports of the temples (barābī), their inscriptions, and the sciences that were deposited in them.

7To this Egypt al-Walīd sent his servant 'Awn, because of what had been mentioned to him of their power over the works of magic and talismans and of the greatness of their tyranny. That is, al-Walīd the Amalekite, king of the land of Nubia, had gone out with a dense army to subdue the kings of the lands, so as to settle in whichever of them he wished and which suited him. Then the report of Egypt reached him, and that the governance of its kingdom lay with women; so he dispatched his servant 'Awn, who marched to Egypt, conquered it and took its wealth.

8Al-Walīd had wanted to be rid of him because of his insolence, so he dispatched him to it because of what had reached him of the magic of its people and their talismans. Then his master marched to him, and the servant met him; and he took its wealth and killed a number of its priests. And it occurred to him to go out in order to stand at the mouth of the Nile and to make war on whichever of the nations opposed him.

9So he stayed three years, appointed 'Awn as his deputy over Egypt, and went out with his army; he passed by no nation without destroying it. He stayed many years; then he passed by the nations of the Blacks and went beyond them, and passed by the land of gold, in which there are thick rods of gold growing, and they are the finest and most splendid of thickets.

10Al-Walīd went on marching until he reached the marsh into which the water of the Nile pours. Then he marched until he reached the temple of the Sun and entered it. It is said that he was addressed, in a long report which the Amalekites and the Copts relate in their histories.

11And he reached the Mountain of the Moon, which is a very great mountain. It was called by this name because the Moon does not rise over it, since it lies outside the equator by fifteen degrees in front of it; the reckoning of that is one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three miles. The length of the mountain is about one thousand miles.

12He looked at the Nile coming out from beneath it and passing along in courses of slender rivers until it comes to an enclosure; it is drawn off [reading uncertain: yanzi'] and comes out of it in two rivers, until it comes to another enclosure. Then it crosses the equator, and a spring from the region of Burkān in India feeds it; that spring comes out from beneath the Mountain of the Moon. And he found in it the castle, and in it the copper statues which Hermes the First made in the time of al-Nūdshīr [reading uncertain], and they are five and eighty images, among them those which he made for the water's courses, so that it would not pour out into sands and thickets of which no use is made on this side of the equatorial line; and were it not for that, its water would have drowned the lands.

13And some people have mentioned that the four rivers come forth from a single source in the Land of Gold beyond the Dark Sea, and they are the Sayḥān, the Jayḥān, the Euphrates and the Nile; and that before they pass through the Dark Sea they are sweeter than honey and better in scent than camphor.

14Then al-Walīd saw the Mountain of the Moon, lofty and very high, with no way up to it; and he and his intimates did not cease devising a stratagem until he climbed up on it to look at what was beneath it. And he looked down upon the black, pitchy, stinking sea, and a stinking odour came to him from it, because of which many of his companions perished; so he hastened to descend, after he had nearly perished. And he saw there neither sun nor moon, only a red light like the light of the Sun at its setting.

15Then 'Awn, when his master was absent, acted the tyrant in Egypt and claimed that he had more right to the kingship; and he fell upon the people and overcame the common folk by magic, and made the rewards of the magicians lavish, so they inclined to him and made his rule firm. And he left no woman of the daughters of Egypt but he took her in marriage, nor any property but he took it and killed its owner.

16And with that he honoured the temples, the priests and the magicians, until he saw his master al-Walīd the Amalekite in sleep, and he was saying to him: "Who commanded you to take the name of the king? Whoever does that deserves death. And you have married the daughters of kings and taken property without right." Then he commanded cauldrons of oil, and they were heated, in order to plunge him into them; and when they boiled he commanded that his clothes be stripped off. Then a bird came in the form of an eagle and snatched him from their hands and soared with him into the air and set him in a hollow on the top of a mountain; and [he saw] that he fell from the top of the mountain into a valley in which was stinking mud. And he woke up terrified, his wits flown.

17And in his waking a thought of the remembrance of al-Walīd had come into his heart, and his intellect nearly left him from fear, because of what he knew of his violence and his strength. So he secretly resolved on flight; and [news of] al-Walīd's being alive and of his return reached him. So he informed some of his magicians, of those whom he trusted, of his affair, and said: "I am afraid of him, and I have resolved to go out of Egypt; so what do you have [to offer]?"

18And they said to him: "We will deliver you from him, on condition that you accept [counsel] from us." He said: "Speak." They said: "You make an eagle and worship it; for the eagle which delivered you in your sleep is one of the spiritual powers, and it wants that from you." 'Awn said: "I bear witness that it did say to me, while I was listening: 'Acknowledge this station as mine and do not forget it.'" They said: "We have made it clear to you."

19So he consented to them in that, and made an eagle of gold, and made its eyes two gems, and adorned it with kinds of gems, and made a temple for it and set it at the head of his assembly-hall, and let down curtains of silk over it, and applied himself to prostrating to it, its incense and its offerings, until the spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) spoke from it; and he applied himself to its worship and called the people to it, and they responded to him.

20And when a period had passed for him, the eagle commanded him to build a city to which it would move him, and which would be for him a stronghold and a refuge. So he commanded craftsmen, and they were gathered for him; and he sought in the west of Egypt a level place, of good air, among rugged mountains, which could not be entered; and he did not cease going about until he found what he sought.

21Then he carried the men, the magicians and the craftsmen, and sent with them the tools and the provisions on wagons; and the road of the wagons is plain there today, its track having turned to stone through the length of time. And they built the city two farsakhs by two farsakhs, and dug a well in it, and placed in the well a statue of a pig of copper with mixtures, and set its face towards the east, with the ascendant of Saturn and its direct motion and its safety from those opposed to it, while it is in its exaltation. And they slaughtered a pig and smeared its face [pronoun ambiguous: probably the face of the copper pig] with its blood, and fumigated it with its hair; and they took some of its hair, its bones, its blood, its flesh and its gall and put them inside that copper pig, and they put in its ears some of its gall; and they burned the rest of the pig and put its ashes in a copper jar before that fashioned pig, and they engraved upon it the spiritual power of Saturn. And they made the gate with a dome of copper over it, and around the dome statues of horsemen of copper with spears in their hands.

22And they made the foundation of the city of black marble, and above it red and yellow; and they made in the highest part of the city a great fortress with many gates, on each of its gates the statue of a large eagle fixed with lead, upon which was a horseman with a spear in his hand, his face towards the outside of the city. And he conducted water to it by its eastern gate.

23And he offered to those eagles male eagles according to their number, and smeared them with their blood; and he planted gardens, set up open squares, and laid out fields, vineyards and date-palms, what would suffice him in each year for ten years. Between it and the city of Manf are three days; and it has four festivals in the year, at the times in which the eagle turns, when its revolution moves with its upper side [sense uncertain].

24And when they had finished all of this, his soul was at ease and his heart was at rest in it, until the letter of al-Walīd reached him from the regions of Nubia, ordering him to send provisions to him and to set up markets for him. So he dispatched all of that to him in ships and on the backs [of animals], and he gathered his household and those he had chosen from the daughters of the kings of Egypt, until, when al-Walīd's entry into Egypt drew near, he moved to the city and fortified himself in it, and left a deputy for al-Walīd. And [al-Walīd] entered Egypt, and its people met him and complained to him of 'Awn and what had befallen them from him.

25He said: 'And where is 'Awn?' They said: 'He has fled from you.' And he was enraged, and ordered that a dense army be sent against him. And they made known to him that no one could reach him, because of what he had built and perfected and fortified with magic and with the repelling and attracting talismans, which no enemy sees without standing dumbfounded until he dies; and other talismans, so that whoever comes near them remains drowsy until he dies, unless one of the people of the city blows in his face.

26So he wrote to him ordering him to come to him, and warning him against staying behind, and swearing that if he did not do so and he got hold of him, he would cut up his flesh. And he answered him, saying: 'There is no burden upon the king from me, nor any fault, because I am his slave; and what is the fault of the kingdom after him [sense uncertain]? So let the king stand firm, for I am here a support for him against every enemy who comes to him from these regions; and I am not able to travel to him because of my fear of him. So let him be on guard, and let him leave me as one of his agents, and I will send him what is due from me of his tribute and his gifts; for it is not fitting for one who has power to depart from what is obligatory, nor to do what it is not permitted to do.'

27And he sent him splendid riches and great jewels, and al-Walīd refrained from him and remained in Egypt; and he enslaved its people and took their riches as a punishment for them, and ruled them for one hundred and twenty years. And he rode out one day, and his horse fell with him into a pit, and he died. This is the text of his story as they related it; and I have brought it to you only so that you may know their power over this science and their holding fast to it.

28And one of the later [practitioners] of the craft of astrological judgements has related that he saw, in what these people recorded on becoming invisible, a nāmūs; and that is that on the fourteenth night of the Arab month you go, with the sign [sense uncertain], to a hare and slaughter it facing the Moon while you are looking at it, and you fumigate with the fumigation of the Moon and speak its speech, and say along with that: 'O angel who is appointed over the spiritual power of magic and of concealment, Salnaqīl, I ask you by Him who gives you support in this matter that you grant me what I want of that over which power has been given to you.'

29Then take the blood and mix it with the gall of the hare mentioned, and bury the body in the earth at once, and hide it and do not expose it; and if you leave it for another day and the Sun rises upon it, the spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) of the Moon will destroy you. And also store that blood mixed with the gall by you. Then when you wish to be concealed, you go out in the hour of the Moon, take some of that blood, wipe your face with it and speak the speech of the Moon; for no one will see you, and you may do by it what you wish.

30And when you wish to be seen, you leave off the speech, wash your face, and wipe between your eyebrows with the marrow of the brain mentioned, which you had stored away, taking care with it that no one sees it in any way. Then say: "O spiritual power, uncover yourself from me and let me appear to human beings like myself"; for you will appear at once. And this is among their lunar operations.

31And along with his mention of this operation he brought a report, which I shall mention to you. It is that a non-Arab man of the Kurds went to a Babylonian shaykh and said to him: "O my master, I want you to teach me magic." The shaykh said to him: "And what is your religion?" He said to him: "I am now a follower of the religion of the Messiah." The shaykh said to him: "Then do for me what the Messiah used to do, raising the dead." The young man said to him: "I do not know that." The shaykh said to him: "Then how is it with you, that you would learn magic?"

32The young man said: "Was it then magic that Jesus used to do?" The shaykh said to him: "Or was it without knowledge that he used to do that?" The young man said to him: "Inform me, as a favour, of what I have asked you." The shaykh said to him: "Yes. The newborn is born with such-and-such, and grows and becomes great; and likewise such-and-such grows and becomes great in him." The young man said to him: "I am asking you for a ruling, so give me a ruling."

33The shaykh said to him: "Take this pen to yourself." So he took it from him; then he handed him ink and said to him: "Write with your hand on your hand such-and-such." So the young man wrote with his hand on his hand. When he had finished, the shaykh said to him: "Look at what you have written on your hand." He looked, and was bewitched for a long while. When he came to, the shaykh said to him: "What is the matter with you, and what is it that befell you?" The young man said to him: "I do not know."

34The shaykh said to him: "You did not know what we intended with you and with the writing on your hand; so how is it with you, [that you would] learn [a knowledge] of which you have not attained a single fine point?" The young man was dumbfounded and began turning his palms over, and he was bewitched for a long while. When he came to, the shaykh said to him: "What is the matter with you, and what is it that befell you?" The young man said to him: "I repent, so let me go." The shaykh said to him: "Let go of yourself, O you who are ignorant of yourself; you have no share in the science of magic."

35The young man was dumbfounded and turned his face towards the wall, and there on it were figures opposing one another: one seeking to burn its companion with fire, another meeting it with water, another wanting to rise up, and another wrecking what was beneath it and not letting it rise. The shaykh said to him: "What do you see?" The young man told him what he saw. The shaykh said to him: "Whoever understands, knows." Then the young man remembered, and wiped off what was on his hand before he looked at it [pronoun ambiguous: the hand or the figures]. The shaykh said to him: "Renounce [it], you there; for this is a knowledge from which you are far."

36And among their symbols, too, is what I shall bring you some of. Among them: a man came up to Alexander with a ring in his hand on which letters were engraved, and Alexander met him with a clear mirror; and the man was robbed of his mount, and it was brought to Alexander. When the man saw his mount and recognised it, he said: "Truly this is a wonder, that we were come upon from where we came." And Alexander was told of a serpent that destroys the cows. Then Alexander said: "Make cows for it." So they made cows for it, and the cows destroyed the serpent. And they said: The Abyssinian sent camels towards his enemy, and the camels caught the enemy and brought him as a captive to the Abyssinian. And they said: The archer made the bow larger so as to hit his enemy, and his arrow killed him [pronoun ambiguous: the enemy or the archer]. And they said: The figure is a magnet for the figure. And they said: The bird caught the bait for its young, and the bait ate the young. And they said: Moving the still is easier than stilling the moving; and moving the still, its opposite is stilling the moving. And they said: The female is the magnet of the male, and the male is the magnet of the female. And they said: Moisture is the opposite of dryness, chastity the opposite of desire, intellect the opposite of folly, and light the opposite of darkness.

37And they said: The lower forms are obedient to the upper forms. And they said: If water accepted stillness, it would be earth; and if earth accepted motion, it would be water. And they said: The wind carries, though it has neither hand nor neck; and fire eats, though it has neither mouth nor tooth. And they said: The point is the centre of the circle; and the pole is small, and its load is great. And they said: Solomon's kingship was in his ring: when he put it on, the jinn and humankind, the winds and the birds came to him; and when he took it off, he was like one of the people.

38And they said: The stick breaks, and the rope snaps. And they said: The beginning of thought is the end of the work; and the example of that: when one moves the stick, then the stick [moves] by the wind, and the fire by the geometrical motion, upon water or upon wind or upon mercury [sense uncertain]. And they said: The friend of every so-and-so is his intellect, and the enemy of every so-and-so is his ignorance. And they have such symbols on this subject that, were we to bring them in, our book would grow long thereby. So know that.