1Chapter 9
فصل (٩)
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Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm · draft
Book Four, chapter 9
Talismans from the Serapis temple book and Cleopatra's book; counsels
Ritter pp. 405–416 · 51 passages · 11 withheld
Ritter p. 405
2We had also found in that temple book compound talismans which perform wondrous acts through kinds of occult properties found in them, and we have seen fit to set them down here.
وقد كنّا وجدنا ايضًا فى ذلك الكتاب الهيكلى طلسمات مركّبة تفعل افعالاً عجيبةً بضروب من الخواصّ الموجودة فيها ورأينا اثباتها هنا ،
al-kitāb al-haykalī: lit. 'the book of the temple'; 'that' refers back to a book named earlier in the text.
3Among these is a kohl talisman, with which one whom a viper, a scorpion, a snake, a hornet or any of the vermin has stung applies [it] to his eye, on the side opposite to the stung side: the gall of a kite is taken, dried in the shade and stored in a clean glass vessel with a little juice of fennel. If a person is stung, it is dropped on him like a collyrium (shiyāf), and he is anointed with it [with] three applications of the kohl-stick, and it heals at once.
فمن ذلك طلسم كحلى يتكحل به من لسعته افعى او عقرب او حية او زنبور او جميع الهوامّ مخالفًا للجانب الملسوع : تؤخذ مرارة الحدأة فتيبّس فى الظل وترفع فى زجاجة نظيفة مع يسير عصارة رازيانج وان لسع انسان قطر عليه كالشياف وكحل به ثلاثة اميال فيبرئ على الفور ،
Historical remedy, recorded as belief; not a remedy to try. 'Talisman' (ṭilasm) is here applied to a compound preparation rather than an engraved image. amyāl (sing. mīl): the probes used to apply kohl; 'three applications' renders thalāthat amyāl. The subject of fa-yubri' is unexpressed; taken as the preparation.
Ritter p. 406
4A talisman, and it is a bell which brings snakes and scorpions out of their holes:
طلسم وهو جلجل يخرج الحيّات والعقارب من احجرتها:
Withheld
Withheld: how to cast the metal bell of this talisman, the one meant to draw snakes and scorpions out of their holes.
This is the recipe for making the bell itself, which you're then supposed to strike at the entrance of a snake or scorpion hole to bring them out. It's a metal casting that relies on an arsenic mineral melted down with other materials, and heating that gives off poisonous fumes, so it's dangerous to make and is left out. The recipe also works in the head of a bird found in Egypt, which is what 'this bird' refers to in the lines just after.
6When you have finished it, strike with it at the door of the holes of the snakes or the scorpions or their like, for they come out and you do with them what you wish. Its maker is Agathodaimon. And this bird has an occult property: when it cries, all the snakes come out and become as dead from its cry.
فاذا فرغت منه اضرب به على باب احجرة الحيّات او العقارب او شبهها فانها تخرج وتفعل بها ما تشاء، والصانع له اغاديمون وهذا الطائر فيه خاصية اذا صاح خرجت الحيّات كلها وتماوتت من صيحته،
Aghādīmūn is Agathodaimon. 'This bird' refers to the bird whose head is used in the withheld preparation. tamāwatat: 'became as dead', i.e. lay as if dead.
7A fumigation talisman which gathers mice to one place:
طلسم دخنى يجمع الفار الى مكان واحد:
8Take juice of white bryony and juice of squill, and borax, and red Indian beans. The beans and the borax are pounded and kneaded with the juice, and you make pellets like chickpeas, and they are dried in the shade and put away. A pellet of them is burnt as a fumigation on a fire of embers, and the mice gather to the smoke and you do with them what you wish.
تؤخذ عصارة كرمة بيضاء وعصارة بصل الفار وتنكار ولوبياء هندية حمراء تدق اللوبياء والتنكار وتعجن بالعصارة وتصنع حبًّا كالحمّص وتجفّف فى الظل وترفع ويدخّن بحبّة منها على نار جمر فيجتمع الفار للدخنة وتفعل به ما تريد،
karma bayḍā' = white bryony; baṣal al-fār ('mouse onion') = squill; tinkār = borax; lūbiyā' = cowpea beans. Both plants are toxic; this is a historical procedure and not one to try.
9A talisman which gathers crabs
طلسم يجمع السرطانات
10Take leaves of the qaydārūs tree and leaves of the fox tree, and the blood of a hare. The whole is pounded and made like a ball, and it is tied in a rag and let down by a thread into a place of water in which there are crabs. They gather to the remedy and cling to it, until not one of them remains.
يؤخذ ورق شجرة قيداروس وورق شجرة الثعلب ودم ارنب ويسحق الكل ويصيّر كالأكرة ويشدّ فى خرقة ويدلى بخيط فى موضع ماء فيه سرطانات فانها تجتمع للدواء وتتعلق به حتى لا يبقى منها شىء،
qaydārūs appears to be Greek kedros, cedar. shajarat al-tha'lab, 'the fox tree', is rendered literally. dawā' ('remedy') is the text's word for the bait.
Ritter p. 407
11A talisman which gathers fish
طلسم يجمع السمك
12Millet is made to rot, and goat's fat, crushed broad beans and ox blood are added. The whole is made into one body, then it is put into a basket of reeds and tied with a hemp thread, then it is placed in a spot in which it is known that there are fish. No fish remains there, when it smells its scent, but it gathers to it. Then cast the net and take them all.
يعفّن الجاورس ويضاف شحم ماعز وباقلاء مسحوقة ودم ثور يصيّر الكل جسدًا واحدًا ثم يصيّر فى قوصرة قصب ويشدّ بخيط قنب ثم يوضع فى موضع يعلم ان فيه سمكًا فلا يبقى فيه سمكة اذا شمّت رائحته الا اجتمعت اليه فألقِ الشبكة وخذها باجمعها،
13A fumigation talisman with which trees are fumigated, so that no bird remains but it falls on smelling its scent:
طلسم دخنى يدخّن بها الشجر فلا يبقى طائر الا سقط عند شمّ رائحته:
Withheld
Withheld: a smoke, burnt under a tree, that intoxicates the birds in it so they fall.
This is a stupefying fumigation for catching birds: burn it under the tree and they drop. It's left out because it's an intoxicating smoke; the text itself tells you to cover your nose against it. It ends by saying the birds come round at once if you wash their feet in hot water.
15Another fumigation talisman for that also
طلسم دخنى ايضًا فى ذلك
Withheld
Withheld: a second fumigation for the same purpose, a smoke burned under a tree to stupefy the birds roosting in it so they drop to the ground.
This is another smoke recipe like the one just before it. You burn it under a tree, and the birds in the branches are meant to get drugged by the fumes and fall. It rests on strong plant narcotics, and the smoke would affect whoever breathes it, not just the birds, so it's left out as a narcotic preparation.
17A talisman: a crown
طلسم اكليل
18Whoever wears it, his sight becomes bright, so that he sees a thing from a far place; and when the crown is taken off his head, he returns to his former state. Rods of a tree called qaṭlā are taken while they are fresh, and a crown is made of them and worn, and it does what we have mentioned. And in the juice of this tree there is great benefit: when it is mixed with wine vinegar and leprosy is smeared with it, it cures it quickly.
من لبسه اضاء بصره حتى يبصر الشىء من المكان البعيد واذا نزع الأكليل عن رأسه رجع الى حاله الاول: يؤخذ قضبان شجرة يقال لها قطلا وهى غضّة ويصنع منها اكليل ويلبس فيفعل ما ذكرناه وفى عصارة هذه الشجرة منفعة كبيرة اذا خلطت بخلّ خمر وطلى بها البرص ابرأته بسرعة،
The tree qaṭlā is unidentified. al-baraṣ is a skin disease with white patches, rendered 'leprosy'. A historical remedy, not one to try.
Ritter p. 408
19A talisman of a cup: whoever drinks from it does not become drunk. You make a cup of ṭāliqūn copper, having a little thickness, and you prepare vinegar of citron pulp, distilled with the cucurbit and the alembic, and juice of Nabataean cabbage, and juice of fresh cyperus (su'd), in equal parts; it is mixed. Then heat the cup before its scraping [reading uncertain: jardihi] and quench it in this compound; then heat it and quench it [again], until it has drunk of it the amount of a raṭl. Then polish it and put it away with you; and when it is to be used, you coat it with a light coating of oil of bitter almonds. Then give drink with it, or drink; for whoever drinks from it does not become drunk at all.
طلسم كأس لا يسكر من شرب فيه: تصنع كأسًا من النحاس الطالقون فيه ثخن قليل، وتعدّ خلّ حماض أترج مصعدًا بالقرعة والأنبيق، وعصارة الكرنب النبطي، وعصارة سعد رطب، بالسواء، يخلط، ثم احمِ الكأس قبل جرده وسقّه هذا المركّب، ثم احمِه وسقّه حتى يشرب منه قدر رطل، ثم اجلُه وارفعه عندك، وعند تصريفه تطليه طليًا خفيفًا بدهن لوز مرّ، ثم اسقِ به أو اشرب، فإنه لا يسكر البتة من شرب منه.
Ṭāliqūn is a hard copper alloy prized for vessels and mirrors. This is a historical recipe and not one to try: copper repeatedly heated and quenched in acid leaves poisonous copper salts on the vessel, bitter-almond oil is itself harmful, and no cup prevents drunkenness.
Withheld
Withheld: a talisman meant to be placed on a table to keep flies from settling on it.
This passage is a recipe for a fly-repelling talisman you'd set on the table. The trouble is that the mixture it describes includes a toxic substance among its ingredients. Under the project's strict harm policy, we leave out recipes like that, so the ingredients and the procedure aren't translated here.
21Another talisman, and it is the making of a tablecloth which nothing at all of the vermin approaches: the skin of a yāmūr is taken and tanned as leather is tanned, and a tablecloth is made from it, and it does what we have mentioned. And this is a thing witnessed, which has been verified, and the skins are now sold in Mecca.
طلسم آخر وهو عمل سفرة لا يقربها شيء من الهوامّ البتة: يؤخذ جلد يامور ويدبغ كما يدبغ الأديم وتعمل منه سفرة فتفعل ما ذكرناه، وهذا مشاهد قد وقف عليه، والجلود الآن تباع بمكة،
Sufra is a leather mat or cloth spread for eating; 'tablecloth' keeps the sense. Al-hawāmm are small creeping creatures and vermin. The yāmūr is a wild animal named in Arabic lexica, usually taken as a kind of deer or wild goat; it is left transliterated. The text calls this a 'talisman' (ṭilasm), though it is a property of the material and involves no image. It is given here as a historical claim, not as a method to try.
Withheld
Withheld: a recipe for an ink talisman meant to make snakes that touch the written paper shed their skins and die.
This passage, running from p. 408 to p. 409, gives a recipe for a special ink. The idea is that you write on paper with it, toss the paper into a snake-charmer's basket, and the snakes that touch it shed their skins and die. Because the recipe is a compound that names actual substances, it's left out under the project's harm policy, which is applied strictly here. You're not missing a working method, just the specifics of how the mixture was made.
Ritter p. 409
23A fumigation talisman: when it is used as a fumigation, there rises from it into the sky a vapour that resembles fire, and it is feared. The root of the plant sirāj al-quṭrub is taken (it is seen at night as though it were a lamp), and it is pounded and kneaded with the brain of a stag and the gall of a bull, and made into pellets like chickpeas, and dried in the shade. Then it is burned as a fumigation over a fire of dung, and there rises from it a wondrous vapour, as though it were red fire in the sky, so that people are frightened. And it does not work except in cloud and turbid air.
طلسم دخنى اذا دخّن به ارتفع منه الى السماء بخار يشبه النار ويخاف منه: يؤخذ اصل حشيشة سراج القطرب وهى ترى بالليل كانها سراج وتدقّ وتعجن بدماغ ايّل ومرارة ثور ويبندق كالحمص ويجفّف فى الظل ثم يدخّن به على نار زبل فانه يرتفع منه بخار عجيب كانه نار فى السماء احمر حتى يفزع الناس ولا يعمل الا فى الغيم وتخليط الهواء،
This is a historical recipe, not one to try. Its effect is a spectacle in the sky. Nothing is given to anyone. 'Sirāj al-quṭrub' means literally 'the lamp of the quṭrub', a night-roaming creature or demon. The name is explained by the plant's supposed glow at night. Some Arabic plant-books identify it with the mandrake, a toxic plant, but the identification here is uncertain.
24A lamp talisman: whoever has it in his hand does not see, and his sight is dimmed by its light, and whoever is behind it sees everything that is in the house by its radiance. There is taken the fat of a fish that is called al-dukhas, and in Egypt it is called the dolphin; it is melted until it becomes an oil; then you put it away. And when working with it, you make a wick from a rag of linen and smear it in powdered verdigris; then you light it with that oil in a lamp of copper, and what we have mentioned comes about.
طلسم سراجي من كان بيده لم يبصر وغشي بصره لضوئه ومن كان خلفه رأى كل ما في البيت لضيائه: يؤخذ شحم سمكة يقال لها الدُخَس وتسمّى بمصر الدلفين فيذاب حتى يصير دهنًا ثم ترفعه وعند العمل به تصنع فتيلةً من خرقة كتان وتلوّثها في مسحوق زنجار ثم تسرجها بذلك الدهن في سراج من نحاس فيكون ما ذكرناه،
This is a historical lamp trick recorded as part of the text, not one to try: verdigris is a toxic copper compound and burning it gives off harmful fumes, and dolphins are protected animals. Al-dukhas is the Arabic name for the dolphin; the text itself glosses it with the Egyptian name al-dulfīn.
25A talisman: if it is placed under the head of a sleeping person, he does not sleep at all, and is wakeful and restless until it is removed from him. The herb barshāwshān is pounded and sifted and kneaded with the milk of a sow that is giving suck, and from it is made a figure of a boy as though he were falling in a fit. For if it is placed under the head of a person, his intellect is confounded, and he is wakeful and does not sleep.
طلسم اذا وضع تحت رأس انسان نائم لم ينم البتة وسهر وقلق حتى يزال عنه: تدقّ حشيشة البرشاوشان وتنخل وتعجن بلبن خنزيرة ترضع ويصنع منها تمثال صبيّ كأنه ينصرع فانه اذا وضع تحت رأس انسان ذهل عقله وسهر ولم ينم،
This is a historical talismanic operation, recorded for the history of magic, and not one to try. Barshāwshān is usually identified as maidenhair fern. Nothing here is eaten, drunk or applied to the body: the claimed effect is purely magical and works only through the figure placed under the sleeper's head. 'Figure' renders timthāl, a modelled statue or effigy, which keeps it distinct from ṣūra ('image'). 'Falling in a fit' renders yanṣari'u, a word used of epileptic seizure.
26A talisman: if a man ties it on his loins and has intercourse, no child is born to him, and he does not cease to be so as long as it is tied on his loins. You make a figure of a monkey of copper, and its back is pierced and you tie in it a little scammony, and tie it on your waist, between your hips, when you wish for intercourse; and have intercourse, and nothing will be born to you.
طلسم اذا شدّه الرجل على حقوه وجامع لم يولد له ولا يزال كذلك ما دام مشدودًا على حقوه: تصنع تمثال قرد من نحاس ويثقب ظهره وتشدّ فيه يسير سقمونيا وشدّه فى وسطك اذا اردت الجماع بين وركيك وجامع فلا يولد لك،
tamthāl is rendered 'figure'. Historical belief, not something to try. Historical belief, not a method to try. The scammony is worn tied on the body, not taken. The thing in which it is tied ('in it') belongs to the part of the sentence on the preceding page.
Ritter p. 410
27A talisman: whoever carries it with him, the dogs do not bark at him and do not come near him, and they flee from him. The root of the mandrake (yabrūḥ) is ground and kneaded with the milk of a bitch, and you make from it an image of a dog. Carry it with you and pass through the howling dogs, for you will not fear them.
طلسم من حمله معه لم تنبح عليه الكلاب ولم تقربه وهربت منه: يسحق اصل اليبروح ويعجن بلبن كلبة وتصنع منه صورة كلب واحمله معك واخترق الكلاب العاوية فانك لا تخاف منها،
ṣūra rendered 'image' (talismanic sense). The mandrake is a toxic plant; here it is only shaped and carried, not taken. Historical belief, not a method to try.
28A talisman, and it is the making of the water that dissolves iron when it is heated and dipped in it, until it becomes water. One part of al-qahāshīr [word uncertain] is taken, one part of squill and one part of fresh pomegranate peel. Mix the whole after pounding, and knead it with wine vinegar until it becomes like a gruel, and put it in a cucurbit and sublime it. Take the distillate and dip the iron in it, heated, and it dissolves it on the spot and makes it flowing water. Leave it for an hour and strain the water off it: the iron remains at the bottom, heavy, not mixed with the water, gleaming as though it were silver.
طلسم وهو عمل الماء الذى يحلّ الحديد اذا حمى وغمس فيه حتى يصير ماءً: يؤخذ من القهاشير جزء ومن العنصل جزء ومن قشر الرمان الحديث جزء واخلط الكل بعد الدقّ واعجنه بخلّ خمر حتى يصير كالحريرة وصيّرها فى قرعة وصعّدها وخذ القاطر واغمس فيه الحديد محميًّا فيحلّه على المكان ويصيره ماءً جاريًا فاتركه ساعةً وصفِّ الماء عنه يبقَ الحديد اسفل ثقيلًا غير مختلط بالماء يتلألأ كأنه نقرة،
al-qahāshīr is not identified; the word is uncertain. nuqra: silver (as ingot), rendered 'silver'. Historical procedure, not one to try.
Withheld
Withheld: making the 'cold water' that burns through any cloth or wool it's sprinkled on, which the text calls 'the cold fire that is not put out.'.
This is a recipe for a corrosive liquid, distilled from a mineral, that eats through a garment the moment it lands on it. The text presents it as a talisman, but what it actually describes is making something like a strong acid. It's left out because it's dangerous to make and to handle. The author himself warns you not to let it touch your hand or any part of your body.
Ritter p. 411
Withheld
Withheld: a recipe for a red liquid poured into lamps so the room and everything in it seems to glow like red ruby.
This is a lighting trick. You make a red liquid, put it in the lamps, and the whole house is supposed to shine like rubies. It isn't a poison and isn't meant for anyone to take. It's left out because making it means strongly heating a metal salt, which gives off choking, corrosive fumes, so it's dangerous to prepare.
31Another talisman like it, with which one kindles, and it appears like purple. One part of dry lime is taken and one part of dyers' roots, and after grinding them, four times their [amount] of water is poured on them, and it is put in a pot and boiled gently; then it is left to cool and is strained, and there comes out a red water like the ruby, gleaming beautifully.
طلسم آخر شبيه به يوقد به فيظهر كالارجوان: يؤخذ من النورة اليابسة جزء ومن عروق الصبّاغين جزء وبعد سحقهما يصبّ عليهما اربعة امثالهما ماءً ويصيّر فى قِدر ويغلى ناعمًا ثم يترك يبرد ويصفى فيخرج ماء احمر مثل الياقوت يتلألأ حسنًا،
'urūq al-ṣabbāghīn, 'dyers' roots', a red dye-root. Dry lime (nūra) is caustic. Historical procedure, not one to try.
Withheld
Withheld: a talisman the author claims produces deadly green scorpions meant to kill a person by stinging him.
This passage gives a talisman that's supposed to make green scorpions whose sting kills whoever they strike. Whether or not it could ever work, the point of it is to hurt someone physically, so we've left the procedure out. You're not missing anything about the book's ideas by skipping the steps, just the how-to part.
Withheld
And there is a benefit in them: that if they are immersed in oil and hung in the sun for twenty-one days, until they disintegrate in it and die, it is a remedy for the sting of the scorpion [Withheld: the rest of a scorpion-sting oil, which is also said to kill scorpions.
The sentence before this is translated: scorpions steeped in oil and hung in the sun make a remedy for their own sting. What's withheld is the rest of the preparation, which names its substances and was begun on the page before. It's a historical remedy, not one to try.
Ritter p. 412
34Talisman for making a red snake: the large spiders are steeped in she-ass's milk in a glass flask and left for three days. Then take the fat of a tortoise and grind it with the spiders and the milk until it becomes like brain [matter], and put it in a rag of wool and bury it in dung for seven days, for from it is generated a marvellous red snake. And if in place of the spiders [there are] tarantulas (rutaylā'), there is generated from it a snake as though it were a serpent (thu'bān), because the tarantula is the enemy of the serpent in the land of Egypt: when it sees it, it follows it and fights it until it stings it, and the serpent dies on the spot.
طلسم فى صنعة حيّة حمراء تغمر العناكب الكبار بلبن اتان فى قنينة زجاج وتترك ثلاثة ايام ثم خذ شحم سلحفاة واسحقه مع العناكب واللبن حتى يصير كالدماغ وضعها فى خرقة صوف وادفنها فى الزبل سبعة ايام فانه يتولد منه حيّة حمراء عجيبة وان كان بدل العناكب رُتَيْلاء تولد منه حية كأنها ثعبان لان الرتيلاء عدوّ الثعبان ببلاد مصر فهى اذا رأته اتبعته وقاتلته حتى تلسعه فيموت الثعبان على المكان،
This is historical spontaneous-generation lore (creatures said to arise from matter buried in dung), not a recipe to try. Rutaylā' is a venomous spider, here rendered 'tarantula'; thu'bān is a large snake or serpent, distinguished from the general ḥayya 'snake'.
35Talisman for driving away bugs: hair is taken from the mane of a virgin mare at the time when the stallion covers her. Then make bugs of copper, and tie a hair on each bug, and make them like a bunch of grapes, and put it in a jug of brass, and stop its mouth, and bury it in the middle of the house or the village; for the bugs do not enter it.
طلسم فى طرد البقّ يؤخذ شعر من عرف رمكة بكر فى الوقت الذى يقرعها الفحل ثم اصنع بقًّا من نحاس واعقد على كل بقّة شعرة وصيرها شبه عنقود وضعه فى كوز صفر وسدّ رأسه وادفنه وسط الدار او القرية فان البقّ لا يدخلها
A symbolic operation with figures, translated in full. al-baqq may mean bedbugs or gnats; rendered 'bugs'. Historical belief, not a practice to try.
Withheld
Withheld: a coating for a house, said to kill whoever goes in and make whoever smells it faint.
It's called a talisman, but it's a physical preparation: a coating meant to kill anyone who enters the house and knock out anyone who smells it. It's left out because it's a lethal poison. It runs onto the next page.
Ritter p. 413
37A talisman, and it is a coating with which a piece of wood is coated, and it is lit like the candle: the fats of water-dogs are pounded and mixed with oil of laurel and soap and a little sulphur, and it is made like the ointment, and a stick or a piece of wood or a reed is coated with it, then it is lit, and it burns like the candle; it does not go out until its end. And it is of the work of the people of Antioch.
طلسم وهو طلى يطلى به خشبة فتسرّج كالشمعة: يدقّ شحوم كلاب الماء وتخلط مع دهن غار وصابون ويسير كبريت ويصيّر كالمرهم ويطلى به عود او خشبة او قصبة ثم تسرّج فانها تتوقد كالشمعة لا تطفأ الى آخرها وهو من عمل اهل انطاكية،
This is a historical recipe for a slow-burning torch coating, recorded for its interest and not one to try, since mixing fats, oil and sulphur over a flame is a fire hazard. 'Water-dogs' (kilāb al-mā') renders the Arabic literally; the name was used for the beaver or the otter. As often in this chapter, 'talisman' (ṭilasm) heads a recipe that involves no image or astrological timing.
38Talisman for making a drum which, when it is beaten, the beasts of prey flee: the duldul is taken, and it is the sea porcupine, and it is slaughtered and its quills plucked; they are like arrows, with which it shoots whoever pursues it and kills him. Then its skin is flayed and tanned, and a drum is made of it, which you mount on a drum of Isfīdrawayh [reading uncertain], and it is beaten at night. No beast of prey hears this drum but it flees, and no vermin hears it but it dies.
طلسم فى عمل طبل اذا ضرب به هربت السباع يؤخذ الدلدل وهو القنفذ البحرى ويذبح وينتف ريشه وهو شبه النبل يرمى به من يطلبه فيقتله ثم يسلخ جلده ويدبغ ويعمل منه طبل تركّبه على طبل اسفيدرويه ويضرب به ليلاً فلا يسمع هذا الطبل سبع الا هرب ولا يسمعه شىء من الهوامّ الا مات
rīsh, literally 'feathers', rendered 'quills'. ṭabl isfīdrawayh is obscure; it may name a kind of drum. A crafted object, not an ingested preparation; historical belief, not a practice to try.
Withheld
Withheld: an oil charm for catching crocodiles in the Nile, using a slaughtered dog as hooked bait.
This is a hunting recipe for drawing crocodiles out of the Nile. You make an oil from animal fats, nothing poisonous, and the bait it's rubbed on is a dog that has to be killed and skinned first. The oil itself isn't the problem; it's left out because the method depends on killing an animal.
40A lamp talisman: when a lamp is lit with it in a thicket in which there is water, or a reed-marsh, or a river with many frogs, [the frogs] fall still at once. Crocodile fat is kneaded with wax, and a wick is made from it
طلسم سراجى اذا سرج به فى غيضة فيها ماء او اجمة او نهر كثير الضفادع سكن على المكان: يعجن شحم تمساح مع موم ويصنع منه فتيلة
This is a historical recipe and not one to try. Crocodiles are protected animals, and nothing here works as described. 'Talisman' (ṭilasm) is used loosely here, as throughout this run of recipes, for a charm without any image or star-timing. سكن is singular with no named subject; 'The frogs' is supplied from the context and the following passage. على المكان is read in its idiomatic sense 'at once'. The sentence carries on into the next passage ('and you light [a lamp] with it …').
Ritter p. 414
41and you light [a lamp] with it at these places that we have mentioned; for the frogs become still and do not cry out as long as the lamp is lit.
وتسرج بها عند هذه المواضع التى ذكرناها فان الضفادع تسكن ولا تصيح ما دام السراج مسرّجًا،
42A talisman for scorpions: the herb barghanānā and the herb shakā'ā are crushed together, and to them are added bezoar stone, crushed, and red galbanum, and the whole is kneaded with bramble water; and from it is made a figure of a scorpion, and from the rest of the drug pills like chickpeas are made, and dried. Then the figure is placed in a spot in the house, with coals in a censer before it, and one fumigates with those pills; and no scorpion remains in the dwelling but it comes out to that figure. And the working, in my view, is due to the fumigation, not to the figure.
طلسم للعقارب تسحق حشيشة البرغنانا وحشيشة الشكاعى جميعًا ويضاف لهما حجر بازهر مسحوقًا وقنّة حمراء ويعجن الجميع بماء العليق ويصنع منه تمثال عقرب ويصنع من بقية الدواء حبّ كالحمص ويجفّف ثم يوضع التمثال فى موضع من البيت وبين يديه فحم فى مجمرة ويبخّر من ذلك الحبّ فلا يبقى فى الدار عقرب الا خرجت الى ذلك التمثال والعمل عندى للدخنة لا للتمثال،
A fumigation burned by the operator; historical belief, not a practice to try. The plant names barghanānā and shakā'ā are unidentified and transliterated; qinna is taken as galbanum.
43These, may God make you mighty, are wondrous talismans that were recorded in that book, and we have brought them to you here as we found them. So be, may God honour you, sparing with them, and guard this book of ours and protect it with every protection, except from one who deserves it, and such are few; and do not lavish your secret on any but yourself.
فهذه اعزّك الله طلسمات عجيبة كانت مثبتة فى ذلك الكتاب وقد جئناك بها هنا على ما وجدناه فكن اكرمك الله بها ضنينًا واحفظ كتابنا هذا وصنه كل الصيانة الا عن المستحقّ له وقليل ذلك ولا تبذل سرّك الا اليك،
44And remember Socrates and his testament at his death; I remind you of it so that it may be the conclusion of the book. Socrates enjoined his disciples with nine things, namely that he said to them: Hold your natures to contentment from the beginning of knowing them; you will know gratitude upon increase, and your life will be pleasant.
واذكر «سقراطيس» ووصاته عند وفاته وانا اذكرك بها لتكون خاتمة الكتاب ووصّى تلاميذه «سقراط» بتسعة اشياء وذلك ان قال لهم خذوا طبائعكم بالقنوع من بدء معرفتها تعرفوا الشكر عند الزيادة ويطيب عيشكم،
The name is written Suqrāṭīs, then Suqrāṭ; both taken as Socrates.
45And he said: Do not make anything but your heart the storehouse of your secret, for time is not to be trusted not to turn upon you with its unjust side just as it turns upon you with its just side. And he said: Do not think small of a matter while it is small, when it comes upon you and it is capable of growth and increase.
وقال لا تستخزن سرّك سوى قلبك فان الزمان لا يؤمن ان يتصرف عليك بحاشيته الجائرة كما يتصرف عليك بحاشيته العادلة، وقال لا تستصغروا الامر وهو صغير اذا ورد عليك وهو قابل للنمو والكثرة،
ḥāshiya (border, side, retinue) rendered 'side'.
Ritter p. 415
46And he said: Rear your friend with love and virtues as you rear a child, and do not show him your affection from yourself all at once, for whenever he sees a halt from you he will punish you with enmity. And he said: Shun injustice, for it wastes manliness and tears away nobility and virtue.
وقال ربّ صديقك بالمحبّة والفضائل كما تربّى الصبى ولا تظهر له مودّتك من نفسك دفعةً واحدةً فانه متى رأى منك وقفةً عاقبك بالعداوة، وقال تجنّبوا الجور فانه يضيع المروءة ويهتك الشرف والفضيلة،
murū'a rendered 'manliness'; sharaf here in its general sense, 'nobility'.
47And he said: Practise love and reject dealing by the measure of retaliation; your souls will be safe from the wicked, and you will draw near to the good. And he said: Do not reproach anyone for what he does; or else avoid the deed for which you reproach your enemy. And he said: Do not rebuff the beggar, for if you rebuff him you make it known that you own God's blessings that are with you; rather, thank God for what He has granted you by bringing him [pronoun ambiguous: the beggar, or the gift] near to you, and fulfil his need with what is possible, for whoever fulfils the beggar's need has thanked God for His blessings.
وقال استعملوا المحبّة وارفضوا المعاملة بوزن القصاص تسلم انفسكم من الاشرار وتقربون من الاخيار، وقال لا تبكّت احدًا بما يفعل والا فاجتنب الفعل الذى تبكّت عدوّك به، وقال لا تزجر السائل فانك اذا زجرته اعلمت انك قد ملكت نعم الله عندك بل اشكر الله على ما وهب لك بادنائه منك واقضِ حاجته بالذى يمكن فانه من قضى حاجة السائل شكر الله على نعمه،
48And he said: Acknowledge the merit of things, and your merit will be acknowledged; if you love them with a strong love, they will love you. This is the testament of Socrates, so guard it; and it is on account of the ninth injunction in it that we have so often brought it to you [sense uncertain].
وقال اعرف للاشياء فضلها يعرف فضلك ان عشقتها عشقًا شديدًا عشقتك، فهذه وصاة «سقراطيس» فاحفظها ومن اجل الوصية التاسعة منها كثيرًا ما اتيناك بها،
The last clause is obscure; rendered literally.
49And Pythagoras the sage, when he sat on his chair, used also to enjoin them with these seven injunctions: Set your balances straight and know their weights. Straighten the errors [reading uncertain: or 'the steps'], and safety will accompany you. Do not kindle the fire when you see the knife cutting. Moderate your desires; you will summon health. Practise justice; love will surround you. Deal with time as with governors who are appointed over you and removed from you. Do not squander your souls and your bodies, and then seek them out in times of hardship when they come upon you.
وقد كان «فيثاغورس» الحكيم اذا جلس على كرسيّه يوصيهم ايضًا بهذه السبع وصايا: قوّموا موازينكم واعرفوا اوزانها، عدّلوا الخطاء تصحبكم السلامة، لا تشعلوا النار حين ترون السكين يقطع، عدّلوا شهواتكم تستدعوا الصحّة، استعملوا العدل تحط بكم المحبّة، عاملوا الزمان كالولاة الذين يستعملون عليكم ويعزلون عنكم، لا تسرفوا انفسكم وابدانكم فتتفقدوها فى اوقات الشدائد اذا وردت عليكم،
al-khaṭā' may be read as 'errors' or as khuṭā, 'steps'.
50So guard, may God honour you, these injunctions and remember them, and be a place of jealous keeping for what we have entrusted to you.
فاحفظ اكرمك الله هذه الوصايا وتذكّرها وكن موضع الضنانة بما اودعناه لك،
Ritter p. 416
51And here the book ends. Praise be to God, the Bestower, who favours us with the intellectual light without end; and thanks be to Him, first and last, without limit. Glory be to Him, and may He be exalted, greatly exalted. And His blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his family and his companions, all of them, and His peace.
وهاهنا انتهى الكتاب والحمد لله الوهّاب والمتفضل علينا بالنور العقلى بلا نهاية والشكر له اولًا وآخرًا بلا غاية سبحانه وتعالى علوًّا كبيرًا وصلواته على سيدنا محمد وآله وصحبه اجمعين وسلامه.
Colophon closing Book Four and the whole work. 'Intellectual light' renders al-nūr al-'aqlī ('aql = intellect). 'Without limit' renders bi-lā ghāya, which echoes the ghāya ('goal') of the book's title.