From the book
The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise
Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe Second Response's king's fountain is an enigmatic possessive phrase.
- In the Sophic HydrolithThe fountain appears in a first-person account of affliction and recovery.
- In this editionThe translation's “king's fountain” closely follows Königs Fontain; “golden flames” interprets the compound Gold-Flammen without claiming literal gold in a flame.
- A place to readThe king’s fountain emits golden flames after the ash glows; three unnamed things fall into it and darkness results.
Meaning
The Second Response's king's fountain is an enigmatic possessive phrase. Fontain names the fountain; the king is not independently identified. Gold-Flammen describes what it emits in the narrative, not a securely identified metallic product. The combination of fountain and flames places flowing and fiery imagery together without explaining their physical mechanism.
Use in the book
The fountain appears in a first-person account of affliction and recovery. Moonlight dazzles the speaker, who stumbles and breaks a leg. A crutch and slow walking become a balm to inward salt; sweet water then comes from the speaker's pores. The crutch is consumed, and glowing smokeless ashes precede the fountain's golden flames. These statements form an obscure narrated transformation, not a usable set of laboratory or medical instructions.
The fountain is then the place into which three fall. The source supplies no noun identifying those three. Their arrival causes darkness in the world until moonlight breaks through and shines again. The fountain is thus positioned between the recovery imagery and a renewed disturbance of visibility. Its significance cannot be reduced to a stable symbol of prosperity, since the passage immediately associates it with a darkening event.
No assertion in this unit identifies the first-person speaker with the anonymous author of the 1619 main treatise, the collective voice of the First Response, or a named historical practitioner. The Second Response is a distinct 1661 item in the supplied edition. Its compressed voice should remain distinct even where its water, fire, salt, and royal language invites comparison with earlier texts.
A useful reading therefore follows the passage's relations without prematurely assigning objects to them: the fountain emits, receives, and stands at a turning point between light and darkness. The identity of its king and of the three remain unresolved. Recognizing those limits preserves the actual precision of the text better than importing a familiar triad or standard alchemical vessel.
Places to read
- Second Response · unit 3The king’s fountain emits golden flames after the ash glows; three unnamed things fall into it and darkness results.
- Part II: matter and the work · unit 25The main treatise’s fountain has a stated restorative function, distinct from the enigmatic fountain of the Second Response.
Translation
The translation's “king's fountain” closely follows Königs Fontain; “golden flames” interprets the compound Gold-Flammen without claiming literal gold in a flame. The unexplained “Three” is deliberately not expanded. These choices keep the passage readable while preserving its missing identifications. The image is indexed separately from the main treatise's fountain of life, whose stated remedial function is different.
Attested forms
Königs Fontain; Gold-Flammen