page_title: Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world
hierarchical_section_title: Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration from a transcript of Muhammed ibn Umail al-Tamimi’s book Al-mâ' al-waraqî (The Silvery Water), also called Senioris Zadith tabula chymica. In which Ibn Umail describes a statue of a sage holding the tablet of ancient alchemical knowledge. He writes that it stands in an Egyptian temple painted with murals of people pointing and eagles carrying bows. And that the temple is Sidr wa-Abu Sîr, the Prison of Yasuf, where Joseph learned how to interpret the dreams of the Pharoah (Koran: 12 Yusuf and Genesis: 41]. Many of the notes written around the tablet, called the Letter from the Sun to the Moon, are mathematical relationships between the hieroglyphs. But some of the notes are comments by the scribe: that the sun is the spirit (al-ruh) and the moon is the soul (al-nafs); and of the interlocking birds that the female is the spirit extracted from the male.
context_page_description: Alchemy and chemistry in Islam refers to the study of both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry by scholars in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy was derived from the Arabic word كيمياء or kīmiyāʾ. and may ultimately derive from the ancient Egyptian word kemi, meaning black.
  After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the focus of alchemical development moved to the Caliphate and the Islamic civilization. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy as it was better documented; most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as Arabic translations.
context_section_description: Alchemy and chemistry in Islam refers to the study of both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry (the early chemical investigation of nature in general) by scholars in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy was derived from the Arabic word كيمياء or kīmiyāʾ. and may ultimately derive from the ancient Egyptian word kemi, meaning black.
  After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the focus of alchemical development moved to the Caliphate and the Islamic civilization. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy as it was better documented; most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as Arabic translations.
caption: Ibn Umail describes a statue of a sage holding the tablet of ancient alchemical knowledge. Illustration from a transcript of Muhammed ibn Umail al-Tamimi's book Al-mâ' al-waraqî (The Silvery Water), Islamic miniature probably from Baghdad, 608H/1211.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2013:05:27 20:39:29", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8460", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1642", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1193"}