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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Attributed to Abraham the Jew

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures

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The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume IThe Incarnation and the Birth of the Stone · Manuscript 86v · Scan 204

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The Incarnation and the Birth of the Stone · Manuscript 86v · Scan 204

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French

Ms. 86v

jeter sur son fruit pour le dévorer représente la suite de tout l’œuvre. Par le serpent dressé pour dévorer son fruit, c’est l’eau mercurielle qui reste, dans laquelle ce soufre dont nous avons parlé ci-dessus doit être résolu, corrompu, bu par imbibitions réitérées et multiplié ; c’est pourquoi ce cher enfant paraît comme être dévoré par le serpent et sort des chastes et pures entrailles de sa mère, et on lui donne le nom de soufre ou pierre des philosophes.

Mais pour éviter la prolixité, quoiqu’il y aurait une infinité de choses à dire en expliquant cette figure, nous les réservons néanmoins à un autre temps par rapport à l’ordre que nous devons garder en cet ouvrage. Il s’agit maintenant de rendre raison pourquoi Saint Jean ne nous propose pas une vierge chaste, pure et sans tache, mais au contraire impudique et corrompue : la raison en est évidente.

Dans cette création du soufre qui se fait dans la corruption, le premier soufre blanc de nature qui fait les fonctions de mâle couche avec Vénus qui est son épouse et sa sœur, et ainsi par ce

Ms. 86v

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: The Incarnation and the Birth of the Stone

Ms. 86v

spring upon her fruit and devour it represents the continuation of the entire work. The serpent poised to devour her fruit is the remaining mercurial water, in which the sulfur discussed above must be dissolved, corrupted, drunk in repeated imbibitions, and multiplied. This is why the dear child appears to be devoured by the serpent, emerges from its mother’s chaste, pure womb, and is called the philosophers’ sulfur or stone.

To avoid prolixity, however, although infinitely many things could be said in explaining this figure, we reserve them for another time, according to the order we must maintain in this work. We must now explain why Saint John presents us with a virgin who is impure and corrupt instead of chaste, pure, and unstained: the reason is evident.

In this creation of sulfur occurring through corruption, nature’s first white sulfur, acting as the male, lies with Venus, its spouse and sister, and thus through this

Ms. 86v

About This Reading Edition

The first manuscript in the Manly Palmer Hall collection at the Getty Research Institute: the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures, presented in French and English with 463 explanatory notes, 13 manuscript plates, 25 source details, an introduction, chapter outline, glossary, bibliography, and register of readings.

Historical Text and Translation

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures (Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques), attributed in the witness to Abraham the Jew. Getty Research Institute, Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts, accession 950053, Box 1, Hogart manuscript 3; French witness catalogued circa 1800. Manly Palmer Hall is the collector, not the author.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The circa 1800 source manuscript is public domain. The supplied 2026 French reading transcription, English translation, introduction, notes, outline, glossary, register, and editorial arrangement are published with the site owner’s authorization. Source photographs are credited to the Getty Research Institute and Internet Archive in the supplied edition.