the Emerald Tablet of Thoth (Original Version)

Ian Nottingham

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Member # 2232

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posted 08-28-2005 01:29 AM
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Legend has it that the Tabula was found in a cave by Apollonius in Egypt (near Alexandria ?) in the first
century AD, inscribed on a plate of emerald, held by the corpse of Hermes Trismegistus. In other legends
(told by Albertus Magnus), Alexander the Great found it (in the third century BC). In Jewish lore, it was
Sara, the wife of Abraham, who found the Tabula near Hebron !

Balinas has been identified with Hermes Trismegistus himself, the "second" Hermes being Akhenaten and
the "first" Thoth. In Islamic tradition, the antediluvian Thoth is associated with Idris ("exalted to a lofty
station"), who lived between the eras of Adam and Noah and who wrote books that revealed the divine laws
to humanity.

1.3 The historical text part of the Jabirian corpus.

Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan ("Jabir" or Westernized as "Geber") was born at Tus in 721 or 722 AD (shortly
before his father, a druggist, was beheaded & impaled by political adversaries, for he supported the
Abbasids against the then ruling Ommayads).

Jabir belonged to the South Arabian Al-Azd tribe, which had settled down at
Kufa, in Iraq. He studied the Koran, literature, history and became the friend
of the *****e religious leader and Sûfî mystic Ja'far al-Sadiq, who introduced
him into things mystic & occult. This made him turn towards alchemy.

In middle life, he is well established as an alchemist at the court of the
Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (cf. Arabian Nights). Around 803 (with the
downfall of his patrons), he retires at Kufa and is said to have survived until
the accession of caliph Al-Ma'mun (from 813 AD). Another source has it that
he died at Tus in 815 AD.

He wrote extensively, but in many cases books are ascribed to Jabir which
cannot have been written by him.
An idealized image of Geber from the Codex Ashburnham, Florenze, end 15th century.

As late as 1923, Holmyard discovered the abridged Arabic text of the Tabula Smaragdina in Jabir's Second
Book of the Element of the Foundation. Before this discovery, the text had only been known in medieval
Latin.
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