[643] _Ibid._, p. 40. [644] _Ibid._, p. 21. [645] So he states at the beginning of his _De astrologia_ (1555). [646] Lévy (1911), pp. 84-5. [647] II, 5 and 10. [648] Lévy (1911), p. 87. [649] And the following passage seems quite confused and illogical; but perhaps the fault is with the Latin translator: “Ad haec omnes illae tres sectae philosophorum qui asseverant omnia per sphaeras et stellas fieri etiam dicunt quicquid mortalibus contingit id casu temere et fortuito fieri et nullam de supernis causam habere, nec ea in re quicquam.” [650] _More Nevochim_ (1629), II, 38. [651] _Yad-Hachazakah_, (1863), I, i, x, pp. 63-4. [652] These occur in the 24th section which is devoted to medical marvels: “Incipit particula xxiiii continens aphorismos dependentes a miraculis repertis in libris medicorum.” It is rather to Maimonides’ credit that he segregated these marvels in a separate chapter. CHAPTER XLV HERMETIC BOOKS IN THE MIDDLE AGES Prince Khalid ibn Jazid and _The Book of Morienus_--Robert of Chester’s preface--The story of Morienus and Calid--The secret of the philosopher’s stone--Later medieval works of alchemy ascribed to Hermes--Medieval citations of Hermes otherwise than as an alchemist--Astrological treatises--_Of the Six Principles of Things_--_Liber lune_--Images of the seven planets--_Book of Venus_ of Toz Graecus--Further mentions of Toz Graecus--Toz the same as Thoth or Trismegistus--Magic experiments. [Sidenote: Prince Khalid ibn Jazid and _The Book of Morienus_.] Al-Mas’udi, who lived from about 885 to 956 A. D., has preserved a single recipe for making gold from the alchemical poem, _The Paradise of Wisdom_, originally consisting of some 2315 verses and written by the Ommiad prince, Khalid ibn Jazid (635-704 A. D.) of Alexandria. Other Arabic writers of the ninth and tenth centuries represent this prince as interested in natural science and medicine, alchemy and astrology, and as the first to promote translations from the Greek and Coptic. Thus the alchemistic _Book of Crates_ is said to have been translated either by him or under his direction. The _Fihrist_ further states that Khalid was instructed in alchemy by one Morienes, who was himself a disciple of Adfar.[653] There is still extant, but only in Latin translation, what purports to be the book of this same Morienes, or Morienus as he is called in Latin, addressed to this same Khalid. The book cites or invents various Greek alchemists but claims the Thrice-Great Hermes as its original author. It is of this work that we shall now treat as the first of a number of medieval Hermetic books. [Sidenote: Robert of Chester’s preface.]