The Turba Philosophorum (complete) — trans. A. E. Waite (1896)
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The translator’s English as printed (A. E. Waite). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
created all others, both the sublime and the inferior, because He predestinated from the beginning that all creatures extracted from water should multiply and increase, that they might dwell in the world and perform His judgments therein. Consequently, before all, He created the four elements, out of which He afterwards created what He willed, that is to say, diverse creatures, some of which were produced from a single element.* The Turba saith : — Which are these, O Master ? And he : — They are the angels, whom He created out of fire. But the Turba : — Which, then, are created out of two ? And he : — Out of the elements of fire and air are the sun, moon, and stars composed. Hence the angels are more lucid than the sun, moon, and stars, because they are created from one substance, which is less dense than two, while the sun and the stars are created from a composition of fire and air. The Turba saith : — And what concerning the creation of Heaven ? Then he : — God created the Heaven out of water and air, whence this is also composed of two, namely, the second of the rarer things, which is air, and the second of the denser things, which is water. And they : — Master, continue thy discourse concerning these three, and rejoice our hearts with thy sayings, which are life to the dead. But the other answereth : — I notify to you that God hath further made creatures out of three and out of four ; out of three are created flying things, beasts, and vegetables ; some of these are created out of water, air, and earth, some out of fire, air, and earth. But the Turba saith : — Distinguish these divers crea-
* In the Book oj Balances, one of the genuine Arabian works of Geber, there is a passage which has some analogy with this dictum:— " Aitei God had created all things of the four elements ... He caused the four qualities to issue from the ancient worlds : namely, heat, cold, moisture, and dryness. The combination of these elements produced fire, which contains heat and dryness ; water, which possesses cold and moisture ; air, which has .warmth and humidity ; earth, which is cold and dry. By the help of these elements God created the superior and inferior worlds."
20 The Turba Philosophorum.
The Turbo, Philosophonim. 21
tures one from another. And he : — Beasts are created out of fire, air, and earth ; flying things out of ,fire, air, and watpr, because flying things, and all among vegetables which have a spirit, are created out of water, while all brute animals are from earth, air, and fire. Yet in vegetables there is no fire, for they are created out of earth, water, and air. Whereat the Turba. saith : — Let us assume that a fire, with jour reverence's pardon, does reside in vegetables. And he : — ^Ye have spoken the truth, and I affirm that they contain fire. And they : — Whence is that fire ? He answereth : — Out of the heat of the air which is concealed therein ; for I have signified that a thin fire is present in the air, but the elementary fire concerning which you were in doubt is not produced, except in things which have spirit and soul. But out of four elements our father Adam and his sons were created,* that is, of fire, air,
* The treatise of Olympiodorus On the Sacred Art observes that Adam was the issue of the four elements, and
22 The Turba Philosophorum.