Rhazes

Use in the book

The citation on page 109 follows the rule that the Philosophers' sayings must be understood according to Nature's possibility rather than bare verbal sound. Rhazes adds the distinction between surface and what is signified through similitude. The next sayings, from the Philosophers generally and the Turba, explain why literal reading can be particularly deceptive: apparent plain speaking may conceal the Art, and many things are written that are not actually done. The Liber Saturni continues the chain over the page-turn.

Rhazes's place in this sequence is therefore specific. He is not invoked to authorize arbitrary symbolism. The comparison has to be governed by natural possibility, and the later wax-nose warning explains why otherwise a clever reader could make the writings support almost any material. A likeness must direct attention to the right relation or process, not merely provide a suggestive image.

The name and book title are enough to make this citation discoverable. The passage does not provide a biographical identification, an original-language source, or a basis for deciding the historical authorship of the work circulating under the Latin name. Those questions should not be settled by familiarity with the famous name alone.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 109RAsis and the Book of the Perfect Magistery support interpretation by signified likeness rather than surface wording.
2. 1599 p. 112The later Nature-touchstone rule constrains the interpretive freedom that the Rhazes citation might otherwise appear to grant.

Translation in this edition

The supplied English uses Rhazes for the printed RAsis, while the modern note supplies the identification al-Rāzī. That conventional lookup association is retained, but it does not by itself authenticate the Latin alchemical work's attribution. The article remains anchored to Khunrath's cited wording.