Book Four, chapter 8

1Chapter 8

2And it remains for us to mention to you the effects of things that act through their occult properties, not by intention; and this is the finest of the kinds of magic in one respect. Among these are things that I found in a book that was brought out of the temple of "Sarānīdūs" in the time of "Cleopatra". I bring them to you here and I transmit them to you, as I did with others, from the books compiled on this matter, so that the benefit and the aim may be complete. Among them: the action of excellent, pure emerald on acorn-headed vipers: when they see it their eyes flow away in less than the twinkling of an eye, and they remain without eyes. And serpents, when they feel pain in their eyes, rub their eyes on fennel, and their pain goes away. And the guarding of the eagles, by means of the diamond stone, against whatever among the vermin seeks their young. And the action of squill on the bear, and its flight from it.

3And the bones of the hoopoe: when they are thrown into running water, some of them go down in the water and some of them rise. And the owl, when it sleeps, keeps one of its eyes open and the other closed; and the one, the wakeful, produces wakefulness by suspension, and the other, the sleeping, produces sleep by suspension on a person. And likewise the action of the vulture's foot for gout, by suspension, the right for the right side and the left for the left: for it frees him from the pain and quiets it for him.

4And the nasaf stone: it is a Khurāsānī stone, white, intensely white, on which the file has no effect; when it is hung on the stomach, it cures all its pains, of all ailments. And in the valley of al-Khazlaj, in its upper parts, there are stones, dust-coloured, white, black and piebald, and they are in the bed of the valley; and when they are rubbed against one another, the sky rains. And hardly anyone will travel through that valley, lest he perish by the rain, because when the traveller passes through, they rub against one another by the treading.

5And the eagle stone: it is a red stone, of the colour of Cyprian clay; a stone moves inside it, and when it is broken nothing is found in its interior. And it makes childbirth easy for the pregnant woman.

6And the salamander: it is an animal that is in the shape of the small fox, with the legs of the large weasel; it puts out fire by its coldness, and fire has no effect on its skin. And the thin white membrane in the upper part of the ostrich's palate: fire also has no effect on it; and the skin of its whole throat, and its stomach, may be likewise, because it swallows red-hot iron, and it is quenched in its interior and melts.

7And feathers of every bird, and their lifting of everything from the ground: a shape of middling size is made of them and rubbed continually on a garment, or with the hand, many times; then any body whatever of small size is brought near it, and it lifts it with force.

8And al-ḥajar al-bāhit: it is a stone of the colour of marcasite, glittering beautifully; when a person sees it he laughs until he dies; nothing frees him from that, not even its being hidden from him after he has seen it. And the furfur: it is a bird in the form of the sparrow, black, with a red collar, and its two eyes are red, and likewise its two feet; when it alights on al-ḥajar al-bāhit, it annuls its action, and a person may see it without harm.

9And the fāwīnā: it is an Abyssinian wood; when it is broken, its broken face is always found [in the shape of] a cross; and likewise when the broken piece is broken, down to what cannot be broken [further]. And this form is among the wondrous action of nature, since it is four circles facing one another. And when it is hung on those afflicted with epilepsy, it cures them through persistence in inhaling it.

10And snakes flee from the smell of stag's horn; and ants flee from the smell of cumin; and geckos flee from saffron, so that they do not shelter in the place where it is; and the flea flees from lime when it is spread on the ground of a place, and it flees also from salt-marsh salt when it is spread in houses strongly; and bugs flee from ja'da when one fumigates with it strongly.

11And fire does nothing to moss; and of jujube wood no flaming fire, nor shining one, has been seen. And the vulture guards its young in its nest from bats with leaves of the plane tree, with which it spreads its nest, because the bat perishes from the smell of the plane tree.

12And the ṭirāz stone is among the things that are not divided: it is a stone of which neither the small nor the large breaks. And the stone found in the Nile of Egypt, hollowed out in the shape of a skiff, in which one crosses in it from one side to the other: it is a stone in which are thousands of raṭls, that stays upon the water and does not sink in it.

13And the amethyst stone: if a number of pieces of it are put in cups and wine is drunk in them, it does not intoxicate. And the ṭabarī stone: if a number of pieces of it are thrown into a goblet and then wine is drunk in it, it intoxicates strongly, takes away the intellect and brings on obsessive whispering. And the magnet stone and its attraction of iron: if it is rubbed with garlic it does not attract it, and if it is thrown into the blood of a he-goat it returns to its attracting.

14And the movement of al-karak and of ostrich eggshell in vinegar. And the snakes that are in the valley of al-Khazlaj: if a man looks at them he dies, and if they look at themselves they feign death; and the ḥimlāq of the eye of each one of them [reaches] about ten parasangs.

15And the pig: if it is carried on the back of a donkey and the donkey urinates, by chance or of its own accord, the pig dies on top of the donkey without delay. And the menstruating woman: if she lies on her back in the midst of a sown field, strips herself and raises her legs towards the sky, hail does not fall on the crops surrounding her.

16And the dog and the hyena: for the dog, if it is on the height of a mountain or on a roof, and a hyena passes beneath the dog on the ground of that place, and the shadow of the dog falls on the shadow of the hyena and the shadow sinks into the shadow, the dog falls from the height to the bottom, so that the hyena kills it and eats it.

17And the skin of the lion: if one who has the quartan fever sits on it, it cures him of his illness. And the fifteen among numbers, in three cells of the magic square, for difficult childbirth. And nutmeg, if it is tied onto one who has the quartan fever, makes it cease. And the dung of the elephant: if it is hung on trees, they do not bear fruit that year, and its being hung on a woman does likewise.

18And the stone of yellow water, which cures of it by its drinking up the water from the stomach and the limbs until it takes the measure of its power, and it crumbles and its power ceases. And al-lā'iya coagulates mercury until it turns it like nāṭif. And the fahd al-'ankabūt cures of quartan fever by hanging, slowly; and fennel likewise; and if the two are joined, they cure it quickly by hanging. And snakes and vipers, when they hear the voice of the owl, flee from their homes.

19And al-isfīdrūyah, when something of the silver extracted from copper by way of refining is mixed with it, and then it is struck in a place where there are birds, [a bird] cannot move away until it is taken by hand. And the lion and the donkey, specifically among all the animals: if something of the semen of the female of them is taken, and a garment or meat or the body of a person or something else is smeared with it, and one of the two is given its very semen to smell, the one smelling it follows it whichever way it turns.

20And mercury paralyses a person. And the forehead of the sea hare, when it touches the flesh of a person, crumbles it and turns it like sawīq. And the calcining of gold with mouse dung is like its calcining with lead; and if it is fed cats' dung, it returns to the goldness it had. And gold also, when any body whatever is mixed with it, is changed from its excellence; and when marcasite and sulphur are thrown on it in the melting, its body is freed from defects.

21And sulphur kills every body, and burns it and makes it die, and it revives gold, and beautifies it, and improves it, and increases it in beauty. And malachite also softens gold and removes its brittleness and makes it moist when it is melted with it; and when borax is mixed with it, it is quicker in its work. And the water of henna pressed out of it: when bad gold is heated and quenched in it, and this is repeated many times, it makes it very soft. And salt increases the redness of gold to an excessive increase. And silver, when it smells the scent of sulphur, turns black; and when salt touches it, it turns white and becomes clear.

22And sal ammoniac: its occult property is the drawing of things from their depth and their height. And natron washes the bodies of dirt and brightens their face. And lapis lazuli, when it is combined with gold, increases in beauty; and if it is thrown on embers in which there is no flame, it brings out the tongue of fire. And jet, and its action in the eyes. And marcasite, when its sulphur is burned and it is calcined like flour in whiteness, is a matter in the craft. And magnesia: in its body is a lead called al-andrādīmūs; the work of glass is not completed except with it. And tutty, and its removal of moistures from the eyes; and the best of it is the white. And coral, when one cleans the teeth with it as with a tooth-stick, removes tartar from the teeth.

23And the ash of the sea crab benefits against pains of the eye with a manifest benefit. And the spleen of the camel: when one of the dogs eats it, it dies a natural death (ḥatfa anfihi), and this is strange. And the dung of the white dog, when it is blown and the throat of the strangled and the slaughtered is smeared with it, cures him quickly. And the pupil of the female tortoise, if it is placed on a pot and a fire is kindled under it for a whole day, it does not boil at all.

26And caltrop: the sting of vipers is poulticed with it, and it cures of it; and it is a poison for fleas if the house is sprinkled with its decoction, or a garment is dipped in its water.

27And scorpions: if they are eaten with bread, they break up the stones of the bladder.

28And flour of bitter vetch with milk, for the bite of the rabid dog: it cures of it as a poultice.

29Are not, O my brother, the actions of these talismans wondrous when you ponder [them], and the wisdom of the configuration when you consider [it]? And many of these things perform wondrous actions through occult properties in them that follow their natures. So know that.