Alchemical tafsīr: Qur’anic Hermeneutics in the Works of the Twelfth-Century Moroccan Alchemist Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs

ABSTRACT Beside the codenames and esoteric symbols inherited from Graeco-Egyptian antiquity, the later Arabic alchemical tradition also adopted motifs drawn from the Qur’an: from the blessed olive tree of the famous Light Verse (Q 24.35) to the burning bush and Moses’ staff. This interweaving of scripture and alchemical theory is especially noticeable in one of the major works of the post-Jābirian corpus, Shudhūr al-dhahab (Shards of Gold) by the Moroccan poet Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (fl. sixth/twelfth century), as well as in Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs’s self-penned commentary, Ḥall mushkilāt al-Shudhūr (The Solution to the Obscurities in the ‘Shards’). But was the use of such motifs simply a literary device or did Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs claim to discern a hidden alchemical meaning embedded in the qur’anic text? Focusing on this unexplored strand of the Islamic exegetical tradition, this article examines the premises put forward by Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs in support of an alchemical reading of scripture.


Introduction
Composed by the Moroccan poet of Andalusian origin Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (fl.sixth/twelfth century), 2 Shudhūr al-dhahab (Shards of Gold) is a dīwān of alchemical verse that has traditionally been regarded as one of the most important and influential works in the Arabic alchemical corpus. 3Prized as much for its poetic form as for its theoretical content, the Shudhūr has received plaudits from alchemists and non-alchemists alike. 4Indeed, severe critic of alchemy though he was, the celebrated Muslim historian Ibn Khaldūn (d.808/ 1406) famously described the Shudhūr as 'some of the most wonderfully innovative poetry ever written, despite its consisting of incomprehensible riddles and enigmas'. 5n addition to its general theoretical and literary standing, the Shudhūr also marks a key development in the Islamization of Arabic alchemy's symbolism and conceptual apparatus.Whilst still heavily reliant on the rumūz or symbols, and their associated mythology, which the Arabic tradition inherited from alchemy's Graeco-Egyptian and Byzantine past, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs takes the novel step of adding to this repertoire a new set of motifs drawn from the Qur'an.Like the established rumūz, these qur'anic motifs are intended to serve both as codenames and as symbolic emblems of chemical substances and processes, at once hiding alchemy's secrets from the uninitiated whilst revealing them to the adepts of the art.
Then by the holy valley we returned, Descending by the West side of its hollow.So fragrant was its perfume we would say That in our hand a staff of incense burned.We cast the staff into its shade and lo!A spotted serpent slithering away. 23ny, therefore, of the qur'anic motifs in the Shudhūr relate to the story of Moses, a figure who had long been portrayed as a master alchemist, not only in the literature of the early Arabic alchemical tradition but in that of the Graeco-Egyptian tradition too. 24In the Shudhūr's Mosaic motifs, then, there The imagery of the fire on the Mount, the holy valley, the burning brand, the staff, and the serpent is based chiefly on Q 20.9-20; 28.29-31. 24See Patai, Jewish Alchemists, 31.coterie of Greek philosophers 25is his adoption of terms and phrases drawn specifically from the text of the Qur'an.
Having briefly taken stock of these scriptural elements, the following questions naturally arise: how exactly does Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs conceive of the relationship between qur'anic symbol and alchemical theory?Are the scriptural motifs simply literary devices, chosen arbitrarily, or does our poet envisage a deeper connection between the qur'anic text and the art of transmutation?And if the latter, does his engagement with scripture constitute a form of exegesis or tafsīr?If we restrict ourselves, for the time being at least, to the internal evidence of the Shudhūr alone (as distinct from its commentaries), the response to these questions is not entirely clear cut.
On the one hand, there is reason to venture that Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, in search of an apt metaphor, simply chose the qur'anic motifs arbitrarily, and put them to allegorical use in much the same way as he did elsewhere in the Shudhūr with the stock imagery and tropes of pre-Islamic poetry, especially the aṭ lāl or abandoned encampment motif, which features in the nasīb or conventional prelude to the pre-Islamic Arabic ode, and which Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs uses to symbolize the alchemical processes of putrefaction and distillation. 26After all, since his appropriation of nasīb motifs is undoubtedly a purely literary device, without any serious suggestion of an intrinsic bond between deserted Bedouin encampments and the alchemical opus, one might surmise, based only on the evidence in the Shudhūr, that this is true of his adoption of scriptural emblems as well.
In this respect, moreover, it is also worth recalling that qur'anic allusions (talmīḥ ) or direct quotations (taḍ mīn) were an established part of the set of stylistic embellishments known as badīʿ (stylistic innovation), 27 the use of which is a characteristic feature of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's poetry. 28Indeed, just as classical Arabic poetry's greatest exponent of badīʿ, Abū al-Ṭ ayyib al-Mutanabbī (d.354/965), had famously likened himself, in one of his verses, to the qur'anic prophet Ṣ āliḥ , 29 so Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs likens himself to Moses in the ṭ āʾiyya section of the Shudhūr; and on this score it is noticeable that in his biographical entry on Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs in the Fawāt al-wafāyāt, Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī (d.764/1363) not only singles out this allegorical use of the qur'anic story of Moses as compelling evidence of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's poetic mastery, but does so without any hint of disapproval at the poet's audacity (a common feature of Arabic poetic licence) or any suggestion that the scriptural references should be read as anything other than a literary device. 30n the other hand, though the Shudhūr does not explicitly identify scripture per se as a source of alchemical doctrine, it does clearly identify qur'anic and biblical prophets, from Adam and Seth to Noah and Idrīs, as the custodians par excellence of alchemical knowledge: This is the preparation and the stone Bequeathed to us by Noah, Idrīs, and Fāligh. 32d the Shudhūr also makes the very general claimin conscious imitation of the Abbasid poet Abū al-ʿAtāhiya's (d.211/826) famous verse declaring the ubiquitous evidence of God's oneness 33 that all things (and hence, presumably, the Qur'an included) betoken the art in some way: In everything the art has a sign Bearing witness to the art When summoned by the mind. 34chemical tafsīr in H  all mushkilāt al-Shudhūr On balance, thereforeand these latter considerations notwithstandingthe Shudhūr itself does not provide a definitive answer to the question of whether Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs saw a hidden alchemical sense embedded in the qur'anic text.Fortunately, the Shudhūr is not the only source to which we may turn in this regard.Among the many commentaries to which the Shudhūr has given rise is one, entitled Ḥ all mushkilāt al-Shudhūr (Solution to the Shudhūr's Obscurities), that is by Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs himself, though it takes the form of a dialogue with his student, a certain Abū al-Qāsim al-Anṣ ārī.Although there have been grounds in the past to doubt its authorship (no extant manuscript of Ḥ all mushkilāt, for instance, dates from earlier than the seventeenth century), recent exhaustive research by Juliane Müller and Regula Forsterwho have identified a clearly recognizable reference to Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's commentary in the writings of the thirteenth-century alchemist al-Sīmāwī 35has convincingly tipped the weight of evidence in favour of Ḥ all mushkilāt's authenticity, making it an invaluable witness to Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's engagement with scripture as well as to the intellectual processes behind his poetry more generally.
Not only does Ḥ all mushkilāt shed light on the alchemical meanings concealed beneath the Shudhūr's scriptural motifs, but it also affirmsin some instances at least that such meanings are intrinsic to the qur'anic terms in question.Indeed, in his commentary Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's alchemical reading of scripture extends well beyond the individual emblems included in his poetry to cover entire qur'anic passages and, in one case, as we shall see, a whole sura.As for the grounds on which such interpretations are justified, our author returns to the idea, expressed in the Shudhūr, that all things betoken the art in some way.Thus, in the preamble to his verse-by-verse exegesis of Sūrat al-Raḥ mān (Q 55), he writes: has a sign that points you to it, an idiom that expresses it, and a testament that bears witness to it, which is why it has been called both a divine wisdom and a natural art. 36 his outline, then, of the rationale for an alchemical interpretation of the qur'anic chapter in question, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs alludes to a concept he expresses elsewhere in Ḥ all mushkilāt, namely that insofar as both revealed law (sharīʿa) and nature (ṭ abīʿa) are expressions of the divine wisdom that underpins and pervades God's creation, they 'do not differ from one another', 37 a notion that evokes the Stoic doctrine of the fundamental identity of nomos and physis. 38Hence, as the vehicle of revealed law, the Qur'an is also by that very token, so our author suggests, a window on the 'mysteries (asrār) of nature', which include the secrets of alchemy. 39t the same time, to emphasize alchemy's religious distinction in relation to other natural sciences and arts, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs expands, in Ḥ all mushkilāt, on a doctrine we have already encountered in the Shudhūr, namely the idea that alchemy has a special connection with the biblical and qur'anic prophets, a claim often made in Arabic alchemical literature. 40Originally revealed to Adam through divine inspiration (waḥ y), as a sort of consolation for his banishment from paradise, the secrets of alchemyand in particular the crucial roles assigned to mercury and sulphur 41 were inherited, so we are told, by Adam's son Seth 42 and were then passed down through the generations. 43Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs writes: Adam, peace be upon him, […] was the first to be inspired with this wisdom, [this] hidden art, and matchless pearl, which only the few attain.For when He, the Sublime and Transcendent, cast Adam down from the garden [of paradise] He substituted by way of recompense everything [that Adam had lost]; and among all that [God] substituted for him was knowledge of the art. 44is, however, according to our author, is not to say that alchemy was transmitted to mankind as a whole without restriction.On the contrary, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs is keen to stress alchemy's esoteric charactera character, moreover, that he appears to ascribe to any wisdom (ḥ ikma) truly worthy of the name: Such is the story of our father Adampeace and blessing be upon himas told by the throng ( jamāʿa) [of alchemist-philosophers].I have expounded and interpreted it for you.The origin, therefore, of this science was [divine] inspiration (waḥ y), whereafter it was taken up and discussed by people.On account of its nobility (sharaf) and great value, the folk (qawm) [i.e. the alchemist-philosophers] kept it secret (takātamahu), such that it became a [form of esoteric] wisdom ( fa-ṣ āra ḥ ikmatan) as it was found among none but the few (afrād al-nās).Indeed, were it to be known and understood by everyone, it would thereby fall outside [the category of] wisdom, like all [commonplace] things made current among people. 45 for the few who have succeeded in gaining access to alchemy's mysteries, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs reports that the qawm or tribea term he uses to denote the alchemists in generalhave traditionally proposed different theories regarding the ways in which this is possible, ranging from an unsolicited divine favour (or in some cases a curse) to a propitious spiritual disposition.He writes: The folk have differed over its nature and how it is possible to attain it.Some have said, 'It is a miracle (karāma) from God the Sublime through which God ennobles whomsoever He wills from among His creation and provides sustenance to whomsoever He wishes from among His servants.'[Similarly] it has been said that it is His gift -Sublime is Hewhich He grants to whomsoever He wills, either as a boon (niʿma) or by way of vengeance (niqma).Others have said, 'It is the preserve of the prophets (anbiyāʾ) and whoever most resembles them among those characterized by a spiritual nature (rūḥ āniyya)', which is why whoever acquires it is called a sage (ḥ akīm).It is for this reason, too, that the person who attains it, and acts through it, is usually a pneumatic (rūḥ ānī) who professes the doctrine of resurrection and afterlife affirmed by all other religious communities (milal) and religions. 46e idea that alchemy is especially suited to the category of individuals that Christian Gnosticism classified as 'pneumatics' 47 or those in whom spirituality prevails over attachment to the material worldis one to which Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs returns when discussing what he deems to be the two basic ways of acquiring alchemical knowledge and of obtaining the elixir.The first such approach, so he asserts in Ḥ all mushkilāt, is essentially spiritual and relies on kashf or mystical 'unveiling', 48 a concept that has traditionally played a key role in Sufism. 49Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs suggests, however, that, while this method may have been common in earlier times, it has become too difficult for the alchemists of his epoch. 50Hence, he favours instead the second approach, that of ḥ ikma or philosophical study, 51 which involves a preparatory grounding in the medieval curriculum of arts and sciences, from mathematics and astrology to medicine and metaphysics. 52hat said, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's avowed preference for the methodology of ḥ ikma does not automatically mean that he conceives of the philosophical approach as lacking in spirituality.On the contrary, he stresses the notion that Hermes 53 and the ancient philosophers were able to commune with the higher spirits by abstracting themselves from the material world; 54 and on one occasion in Ḥ all mushkilāt he encourages his student, Abū al-Qāsim, to emulate their meditational practices by concentrating his mind until it becomes 'pure light'. 55or, for that matter, does Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's preference for ḥ ikma over kashf mean that his work is devoid of the influence of Sufism.In addition to quoting verses 56 by the celebrated Egyptian mystic Dhū al-Nūn al-Miṣ rī (fl.third/ninth century), 57 a figure whom the Arabic alchemical tradition regarded as a master alchemist too, 58 Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs also employs Sufism's distinctive terminology and idioms in several passages in Ḥ all mushkilātas, for example, when he refers to the 'verifiers among the folk of both philosophy and the [Sufi] way' (muḥ aqqiqī ahl al-ḥ ikma wa-al-ṭ arīqa), 59 and when he defines divine science (al-ʿilm al-ilāhī) or metaphysics as the 'science of annihilation (fanāʾ) in the [divine] essence (dhāt), which is the [spiritual] station (maqām) of the perfect among the gnostics (ʿārifīn)'. 60minently indicative, too, of Sufism's influence on Ḥ all mushkilātand especially significant from the point of view of the present studyis the hermeneutical method on which Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs tends to rely when interpreting scripture in the light of alchemical theory, namely that of the ishāra or esoteric allusion, a method traditionally associated with Sufi exegesis. 61Based on the premise that the outward, literal sense of the sacred text comprises subtle hints or indications that point the spiritually attentive reader to an esoteric meaning hidden beneath the exoteric surface, the ishārī method of interpretation hadby the era in which Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs lived and wrotebecome a common feature of Sufi tafsīr, as exemplified most famously by Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī's (d.465/1072) mystical commentary, the Laṭ āʾif al-ishārāt. 62bn Arfaʿ Raʾs's reliance on the concept of the subtle scriptural allusion is especially evident in his commentaries (in Ḥ all mushkilāt) on both the Light Verse and Sūrat al-Raḥ mān.In an exegetical style that appears to anticipate the formulaic equivalences that would often characterize later Sufi tafsīr, 63 our author holds, for example, that, in the image of the blessed olive tree, which features in the Light Verse, 64 there is a 'hint and allusion' to the alchemist's 'silvery aqua permanens' (al-māʾ al-khālid al-waraqī) 65 i.e. the solution from which the elixir is obtained and which, like an olive tree with its flammable oil, comprises both fire and water within itselfwhilst its depiction as 'neither Eastern nor Western' 66 is an ishāra to the solution's elemental equilibrium. 67oteworthy, too, in his treatment of the Light Verse is the fact that, like the wellknown commentaries on this verse by Avicenna (d.428/1037) in both Al-Ishārāt waal-tanbīhāt 68 and Fī ithbāt al-nubuwwāt 69 and by al-Ghazālī (d.505/1111) in Mishkāt al-anwār, 70 Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs approaches the qur'anic lamp metaphor from a predominantly microcosmic point of view, interpreting its key terms as allusions to human faculties, which suggests that he is likely to have been influenced by one or more of these hermeneutical antecedents.For his part, our author seeks to justify his microcosmic interpretation by claiming that, in the hierarchical imagery of the lamp metaphor, it is possible to discern allusions to the traditional symbolic depiction of the philosopher's stone as a human or 'philosophical child' endowed with a body, spirit and soul 71 an approach which, admittedly, seems to owe more to Avicenna and al-Ghazālī than to the qur'anic text itself.Having set out this premise, he writes: And [God] Most High has said: 'God is the light of the heavens and the earth; the likeness of his light is as a niche wherein is a lamp; the lamp is in a glass; the glass as though it were a glittering star kindled from a blessed tree; an olive that is neither Eastern nor Western, whose oil (zayt) would well-nigh shine even if it were not touched by fire; light upon light; God guides to His light whom He will; God strikes similitudes for humankind; and God is of all things cognizant.' 72Its meaning is God is the illumination 'of the heavens', [by which] He means the heavens are the spirits (arwāḥ ) and the [mercurial] waters, 'and the earth', meaning the body and sediment.'The likeness of His light is as [the] niche' [of] the psychic spirit (al-rūḥ al-nafsānī) 'wherein is a lamp', meaning the vital spirit (al-rūḥ al-ḥ ayawānī). 73'The lamp is in a glass', [by which God] Most High means the subtle body (al-jasad al-mulaṭ ṭ af).'As though it were a glittering star', exceptionally bright, sparkly and luminous, 'kindled from [the] tree' [of] the divine emanation (al-fayḍ al-ilāhī) 74 and light.In the 'blessed tree' there is an allusion (taʿrīḍ ) and pointer (ishāra) to the silvery and permanent water.'Neither Eastern nor Western', which is an allusion to its equilibrium (iʿtidāl), 'whose oil would well-nigh shine even if it were not touched by fire' of the elemental (ʿunṣ uriyya) kind, which is why, in another part [of the diwan], I said: 'even if it were not touched by the fire of lamps'. 75'Light upon light', I mean [the light of] the tree's oil (zayt) and [the light of] the effusion (fayḍ ) that occurs by dint of the [intelligible] form's aptitude (istiʿdād al-ṣ ūra) for luminosity. 76ile the Light Verse contains the sole qur'anic mention of the zaytūna mubāraka or blessed olive tree, the exegesis cited above is not Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's only explanation of this tree's alchemical symbolism.Commenting in Ḥ all mushkilāt on the opening verses of his ṭ āʾiyya odewhich contains, as we have seen, a reference to the 'blessed middle olive tree of oil'the Shudhūr's author expands upon the basic idea that the blessed olive tree represents the alchemist's 'divine water' or aqua permanens: Abū l-Qāsim said, 'I told [him] "Mastermay God keep you with us always -I have understood; so tell me what you mean when you say in your poetry 'We prospered and grew rich by virtue of the blessed middle olive tree of oil […]'" Wherefore hemay God rest his soulsaid that "the blessed middle olive tree of oil is the divine spiritual water (al-māʾ al-ilāhī al-rūḥ ānī) 77 that most of the folk [i.e. the alchemists] have praised and celebrated.It is the operative poison (al-samm al-mudabbir) 78 composed of two natures, viz. the nature (ṭ abīʿa) of water and that of fire, which is why I termed it 'middle' (wusṭ ā).[In doing so] I also adopted the words of [God] Most High when He says 'a blessed tree; an olive that is neither Eastern nor Western; its oil would well-nigh shine even if it was not touched by fire; light upon light.' 79 And I followed, likewise, the example of the chief of the sages and father of the philosophers [Hermes] insofar as he likens the [divine] water to a tree when he says, 'I have raised up for you, from the Western side of the temple (birbā), a tree whose roots are water and whose fruit is fire.' 80 Here the oil (duhn) is an expression rest of the body via the arteries, whereas the psychic spirit transmitted motor impulses and received sense data via the nervous system.The psychic spirit localized in the brain's 'anterior ventricle' was conceived of as the repository in which images abstracted from sense data were stored.See Temkin, 'On Galen's Pneumatology'. 74In both the Ishārāt and Fī ithbāt al-nubuwwāt, Avicenna reads the Light Verse as an extended metaphor for the faculties and stages of human intellection.Hence, the niche represents man's material intellect whilst the fire represents the separate active intellect that imparts to the human mind the light of cognition, and so forth.(See Heath, 'Ibn Sīnā's Qur'anic Hermeneutics', 223).Though clearly influenced by Avicenna, al-Ghazālī, for his part, interprets the terms in the Light Verse as representing what he identifies as the five hierarchical degrees of the human spirit, though there is, to be sure, a certain amount of overlap with Avicenna's noetic reading insofar as al-Ghazālī interprets the lamp as the 'intellectual spirit' and the tree as the 'cogitative spirit'.(See al-Ghazālī, Mishkāt al-anwār, 137-9).By interpreting the niche and lamp as modalities of the human spirit, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs thus appears more indebted to al-Ghazālī than to Avicenna.Likewise, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's equating of the glass with man's 'subtle body' is consistent with al-Ghazālī's reading of the glass as the 'imaginal spirit'.However, there seem to be echoes of Avicenna's commentary, too, in Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's reference to emanation, which Avicenna equates with the 'touch' of fire.(See Heath, 'Ibn Sīnā's Qur'anic Hermeneutics', 223). 75Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, Shudhūr, 130. 76 Idem, H  all mushkilāt, fols 67b-68a. 77On the alchemists' 'divine' (or 'mercurial') water, see Abraham, Dictionary, 125. 78On the traditional portrayal of the alchemists' 'divine water' as a medicinal poison that cures the starting material of its ailments and impurities, see ibid., 16, 20, 208. 79Q 24.35. 80In alchemical symbolism, the 'Western side' is associated with the cold, moist spirit or philosophical mercury.The appearance of the sun (a symbol of the hot, dry soul or sulphur) on the Western side denotes the union of philosophical mercury and sulphur.Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs writes: 'On the Western side is a sun which, when it appears, shows the way from Mount Sinai to a towering peak' (Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, Shudhūr, 229, poem 30, line 31).Though Lahouari Ghazzali's edition opts for sharqī ('Eastern'), the variant gharbī ('Western') in the Tehran manuscript (see ibid., 229 n. 14) seems preferable here as it accords with Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's commentary on this verse: 'By the "Western side" I mean the direction of the spirit, and of (ʿibāra ʿan) the resultant [alchemical] tincture (ṣ ibgh), which is why we said, 'We have prospered and would not trade itmeaning the olive treefor wormwood or for arak', 81 for it has a fruit and its fruit has an oil (zayt).Thus, for us, the tree is the [divine] water, its fruit is the [philosophers'] earth, and the oil derived therefrom is the [alchemical] soul (nafs)". 82us, although at first sight the olive tree may seem an unlikely symbol for a liquid solution, the ensuing explanation makes it clear that such symbolism is based not on outward appearances, but on the idea that the tree, with its moisture-imbibing roots and flammable oil, represents the paradoxical union of water and fire that is a defining feature of the alchemist's aqua permanens, a solution deemed to contain philosophical mercury (symbolized by water) and philosophical sulphur (symbolized by fire) 83 as well as (in Jābirian theory) the pure forms of the elements water, fire and air. 84ignificant in this connection is Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's tendency in the Shudhūr and Ḥ all mushkilāt to equate the zaytūna mubāraka with both the burning bush and the qur'anic 'tree (shajara) on Mount Sinai that bears oil (duhn) and tincture (ṣ ibgh)'.For our author, therefore, all three arboreal motifs allude to the same fundamental compound, namely aqua permanens, a claim he seeks to bolster by quoting Hermes Trismegistus, but which also appears influenced, as we shall see, by the significance attached to the terms duhn and ṣ ibgh in the Jābirian corpus.
According, then, to the Jābirian theory of artificially produced elements, to which Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs clearly subscribes, 85 the aim of the repeated distillation (taqṭ īr) of the alchemical starting material in the first part of the opus is to produce pure forms of the four elementswater, air, fire and earththrough artificial means, viz.by isolating the elements' constituent natures or qualities. 86These artificial elements or 'cornerstones' (arkān plural of rukn) 87 thus serve as the building blocks from which the transformative elixir is made in the next stage of the opus, known as the 'second operation' (al-tadbīr althānī). 88The first such element produced by this process is, so we are told, the aqueous rukn, traditionally referred to as 'virgin's milk'. 89This is followed by the airy and fiery that therein is a sun, namely the soul, which, when it appearsor in other words comes into manifest existence with the appearance of colours and tinctures (as  bāgh) at the start of the second operation (al-tadbīr al-thānī)shows the way from Mount Sinai, meaning the body, to a towering, i.e. lofty, peak, namely the elevated spirit (al-rūh  al-mustaʿliyya)' (Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, H  all mushkilāt, fol.48a). 81Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, Shudhūr, 188 (poem 23, line1). 82Idem, H  all mushkilāt, fols 28a-29a. 83For the alchemists, al-māʾ al-khālidī (aqua permanens) combines within itself the dissolving power of the starting material's cold, moist spirit or 'philosophical mercury' (ziʾbaq al-h  ikma)also known as the 'operative poison' that breaks metals down into their prime matter at the start of the opusand the coagulative power of the hot, dry soul or 'philosophical sulphur'.On the different symbolic designations of the alchemical soul and spirit, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs writes: 'It is said that [the stone's] spirit is its water and its soul its fire which inheres therein.And they call its spirit its quicksilver (ziʾbaq) and its soul its sulphur (kibrīt), from which are engendered tinctures (as  bāgh), oils (adhān) and flowers (azhār).This, then, is what is meant by the alchemical 'soul' and 'spirit'.They are siblings, one more junior in rank than the other.One is raw the other cooked, one male the other female, one Eastern the other Western, one solar the other lunar, one aqueous the other fiery, one moist the other dry, one hot the other cold, one luminous the other dark, one lofty the other lowly' (H  all mushkilāt, fol.24a-b). 84On the characteristics of aqua permanens/al-māʾ al-khālidī, see Abraham, Dictionary, 58, 134; Todd, 'Alchemical Poetry, 125-6, 136 n. 84. 85See Todd, 'Alchemical Poetry', 124-6. 86See Jābir b.H  ayyān, Dix traités, 89-94; Kraus, Jābir ibn H  ayyān, 2 : 4-5; Todd, 'Alchemical Poetry', 124-6. 87See Nomanul Haq, 'Rukn'. 88On the respective roles of the first and second operations in Jābirian theory, see Jābir b.H  ayyān, Dix traités, 94. 89 On the alchemical solution known as 'virgin's milk', see Abraham, Dictionary, 211; Todd, 'Alchemical Poetry', 125, 136-7.
arkān, which Jābir tellingly refers to as duhn or oil and ṣ ibgh or tincture, respectively. 90ll three are combined, so Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs affirms, in aqua permanens, which, when added to the purified earthy matter at the bottom of the alchemical vessel, completes the quaternary of elements. 91iven, therefore, both Sinai's association with Moses 92 and the occurrence of terms that play a crucial role in alchemical theory, it is not hard to see why a Muslim alchemist such as Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs might have been inclined to regard the qur'anic motif of the tree on Mount Sinai as a particularly compelling alchemical allusion.Moreover, though not always explicitly stated as such, there also seems to be a suggestion, on Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's part, that where especially enigmatic qur'anic passages and emblems are concerned, it is the alchemical ishārāt that provide the key to unlocking their inner meaning.This is evident, at any rate, in Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's alchemical exegesis of a scriptural and theological enigma which, as he puts it, 'the whole world has striven in vain to understand', 93 namely the qur'anic account (in Sūrat al-Baqara and Sūrat Ṣ ād) of the creation of Adam, 94 in which the angels prostrate themselves before the human that God has made from ṭ īna or claya term often encountered in Arabic alchemical literature as a designation of the alchemist's starting materialwhereas Iblīs refuses to do so.Our author writes: As for Adam, God's vicegerent, peace be upon him, he betokens (huwa ʿibāra ʿan) the stone that has been concealed (maktūm) by the clearest proof and the most perfect demonstration.For them [i.e. the alchemists] the prostration of the angels [before Adam] thus betokens the return of spirits (arwāḥ ) to their bodies, whilst the accursed Iblis's non-prostration betokens the fiery soul (nafs) and tincture (ṣ ibgh), which appears and then is sublimated and rises when the spirits are immersed in the bodies at the end of the opus.Understand, therefore, these matters and subtle points, which the whole world has striven in vain to interpret and explain.I have revealed them to you, through God's grace, for they are among the symbols preserved by the folk. 9590 See Kraus, Jābir ibn H  ayyān, 5. 91  But is Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs claiming that beneath the outward, literal sense it is alchemy, and alchemy alone, that constitutes the real core of the qur'anic account in question?Given everything that has been said so far about the premises underpinning his alchemical hermeneutics this seems unlikely.While all things, according to Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, may hint at the art in some way, this of itself, as he makes a point of stressing, does not mean that all things contain it. 96Rather, what appears to be at work in his comments on the creation of Adam is the Hermetic-cum-Jābirian notion of universal sympathy, 97 whereby the cosmos at large, the mesocosm or ʿālam awsaṭ that is alchemy, 98 and the microcosm that is the human being all reflecteach after its own fashionthe same natural laws and divinely ordered processes.Thus, according to this perspective, an understanding of how such laws and processes manifest themselves in miniature in the alchemical vessel can, in turn, shed light on their workings in the cosmos as a whole, and vice versa.
In his claims, therefore, regarding the symbolic significance of the angels' prostration on the one hand and Iblīs's refusal to prostrate on the other, our author is effectively projecting the dynamics of chemical processes onto scripture in order to elucidate a point of theological anthropologythe intended inference presumably being that, just as philosophical mercury (or spirit) and sulphur (or soul) are integral to the production of the philosopher's stone, so both the mercurial rūḥ and sulphurous nafs have their designated role to play in the constitution of the primordial human being.
The idea that alchemy can provide the key to scriptural enigmas is one that seems also to be active in Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's commentary on Sūrat al-Raḥ mān, a sura he singles out as a uniquely rich repository of alchemical doctrine.Indeed, hidden in its versesso our author assertsare the secrets of the art in its entirety, with all its intricate preparations and stages. 99Even at first glance, it is not difficult to see why this sura in particular might have struck a chord with a Muslim alchemist.The first 17 verses alone, for example, contain a rapid succession of terms that fulfil important functions in Arabic alchemy's theoretical language and symbolism.Such emblems include the sun and the moon (traditional symbols of sulphur and mercury), ḥ usbān or calculation, East and West (again, rumūz of sulphur and mercury), and the mīzān or 'balance'a term that is of major importance in the Jābirian corpus, where it denotes the science through which the alchemists calculate the specific proportion of elements and natural qualities in any given substance. 100These are followed in later verses by mentions of fire, 101 copper, 102 and dihān or oil, from the same root as duhn, a termas we have seencommonly used in Arabic alchemical texts. 103specially noteworthy in Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's commentary on this sura is his engagement with the motifs of the sun and moon, which appear in verse 5: 'The sun and moon [move] by a calculation.'For our author, their mention is not only a clear allusion to the twin agents of alchemical transformationsviz.the dry, coagulating soul and the moist, dissolving spiritbut is also divine confirmation of the possibility of obtaining them in the purified form required to produce an elixir.Noticeable too is his appeal to another qur'anic verse, namely Q 36.40, 104in order to show that the Qur'an also alludes to the theoretical principle whereby the extraction of philosophical mercury precedes that of philosophical sulphur in the conventional progression of the alchemical opus.He writes: When He, the Most High, says 'the sun and the moon [move] by a calculation', 105 it is both an allusion (ishāra) to, and a joyous tiding (bashāra) of the coming forth (ẓ uhūr) of the philosophical sun and moon (shams al-ḥ ikma wa-qamarihā) after the foundation [of the opus] has been completed.These, then, are the sun and moon that operate in their [i.e. the alchemists'] world.They are the spirit (rūḥ ) and the soul (nafs) […] 'By a calculation' at the beginning of His speech is a reference to His having said that 'it is not for the sun to reach the moon nor for the night to overtake the day; [rather] each glides in its orbit', 106 meaning that the moon goes ahead of the sun and is [chronologically] prior to it.Even thus [in alchemy] is the spirit prior to the soul and goes ahead of it, each gliding in its own orbit. 107 the verse that immediately follows the reference to the sun and moon, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs sees further allusions to alchemical souls and spirits, represented this time by what he claims, as we have already seen, to be the Hermetic symbol of the tree: Understand, then, the words of [God] Most High [when He says], 'the plants and the trees prostrate themselves', alluding to souls, which are like trunkless plants, and spirits, like trees with a trunk.In the same vein, the ancientsespecially Hermes, the father of the philosophers and the chief of the sagescalled the spirit and divine [Mercurial] water a tree. 108ving interpreted sun, moon and trees according to their established meanings as alchemical rumūz, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs appliesmuch as one might expectthe same principle to the mention of the earth (al-arḍ ) that occurs in verse 10, construing it as an allusion to the purified matter at the bottom of the vessel, which brings forth elixirs and tinctures once its sublimated spirits and souls have returned to it: and blood'. 113The grotesqueness of this imagery is mitigated somewhat, however, by recalling that Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, like other alchemists, 114 sometimes uses 'hair and blood' as codenames for philosophical sulphur and mercury. 115As for the 'pearl and coral' that are extracted from these seas, our author interprets them as clear references to the crucial alchemical phases of albedo 116 and rubedo. 117He writes: When He, the Most High, says 'He let forth the two seas that meet together', 118 the two [seas] are an allusion to the meeting of the two great [alchemical] principles and noble compounds, namely hair and blood.However, 'between them is a barrier', 119 that of viscosity (kathāfa).Wherefore, if the crude and viscous characteristics impeding their union are removed, their meeting comes about.One is sweet, the other salty and bitter.As for His saying that 'from them come forth pearl and coral', 120 it is an allusion to [the alchemical phases of] whitening and reddening. 121nally, in the depiction of hellish torments and heavenly delights 122 that characterize this sura's remaining verses, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs is naturally inclined to discern therein allusions to the initial purification of the stone's mattera phase sometimes referred to in Western alchemy as the 'torment of the metals' 123 and the subsequent production of elixirs, respectively.He writes: When He, the Most High, says 'the wrongdoers shall be known by their marks, and they shall be taken by their forelocks and their feet', 124 this contains an allusion to the [starting material's] viscous characteristics, darkness, blackness, and putrid oils, and to the fact that they are all thrown into the fire of hell and burn therein.As for when He says, 'for whomsoever fears the station of his Lord there are two gardens', 125 it is an allusion to the lesser and greater elixirs. 126re again, moreover, as was the case with Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's interpretation of the creation of Adam, it seems possible to detect the underlying idea that, by dint of the natural sympathy between alchemy and the world at large, the processes that take place in the mesocosm of the alchemical vesselfrom dissolution and decay to purification and perfectionare apt to shed light on their microcosmic and macrocosmic equivalents in this world and the life to come.

Conclusion
Though Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's exegetical interpretations can appear forced and contrivedjust as those of mystical exegetes sometimes doit is not difficult to see why the projection of alchemical meaning onto the qur'anic text would have appealed to him, especially in cases, such as Sūrat al-Raḥ mān and the qur'anic account of the creation of Adam, 127 where this seemed to offer the solution to scriptural enigmas.While confined, all told, to the margins of the Muslim exegetical tradition, 128 the emergence of alchemical tafsīr in the works of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs is an intriguing historical development, nonetheless, confirming a willingness on the part of a medieval Muslim alchemist not only to ascribe alchemical wisdom to the prophets but also to see alchemy enshrined in scripture.
remain, admittedly, echoes of alchemy's Late Antique heritage.However, what makes Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs's invocation of the figure of Moses different from that of his predecessors in the Muslim worldsuch as the anonymous author of the Turba Philosophorum (Muṣ ḥ af al-jamāʿa), a wellknown early Abbasid pseudepigraphic work in which Moses appears alongside a denote baptism.By extension, s  ibgh also means 'dye' or 'tincture'.It is in this sense that the term is used in the Jābirian corpus (see infra, n. 90); and it is this sense in particular that Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs seems to be interpreting it.21 Read Sūrat al-Raḥ mān and the Divine Truth (ḥ aqq) will appear to you (yatajallā ʿalayka), and [the guardian angel of paradise] Riḍ wān will open for you the gates to the [heavenly] gardens.This takes the form of your being adorned with these [philosophical] sciences being beautified with all the arts ( jamīʿ al-funūn), whereby you grasp what they [i.e. the alchemists] have said [openly] and what they have expressed symbolically (ramazū) […] All this I shall expound to you […] and you shall understand what is intended thereby, and grasp what has been conveyed.For in everything it [i.e.alchemy] 32Ibid., 213 (poem 27, line 29).33'Ineverythingthere is a sign indicating that He is one' ( fī kulli shayʾin āyatun tadullu ʿalā annahu wāh  id).See Abū al-ʿAtāhiya, Ashʿāruhu wa-akhbāruh, 104.34IbnArfaʿRaʾs,Shudhūr, 139 (poem 12, line 4).35SeeForster and Müller, 'Identity, Life and Works', 376-9.and See Todd, 'Classical Poetic Motifs', 672-3.92ForIbnArfaʿRaʾs'salchemical interpretations of the qur'anic story of Moses, see for example H  all mushkilāt, fol.46a-b:'Ptolemy the sage said that the stone which God Most High inspired Moses son of ʿImrān to craft into the[alchemical]elixir is that which he called a [worthless] splinter (nuqra), that is, a fragment of mineral (qit ʿa min al-maʿdin).When he saw it, Korah, for his part, perceived the wisdom therein, for it was mottled (mukhtalat a) from top to bottom with the colours of every [metallic] body.Wherefore he deduced that these were what are referred to as the natural qualities (t abāʾiʿ).'See also ibid., fol.56a: 'The "shaykh of Egypt", Pharaoh, is the soul (nafs) and the "briny deep" (lujjat al-yamm) is the spirit (rūh  ), for at the end of disaggregation (tafs  īl) the soul is drowned in the sea of the spirit.And then shalt thou see the sea cleft asunder with the falling of the staff [a reference to Q 26.63].By the "sea" what is meant here is the [philosophers'] earth, by the "staff" wateriness (māʾiyya), and by "falling" [what is meant is] plunging.When I say "has been cleft asunder" (qad tafallaqa), which is derived from the "breaking of day" ( falaq al-s  ubh  ), it is an allusion to the luminous soul's becoming manifest to the eye, even as [God] Most High has said: "He who causes day to break ( fāliq als  ubh  ) and makes night a repose" [Q 6.96].Whosoever arrives at this station (maqām) is assured of success, such that his heart is at peace, he feels tranquil and secure therein, and he lays himself down and sleeps, thanking God and praising Him for this [blessing].Wherefore I said [even as Moses did] "I praise God, for whoever praises God is granted success; I have gained what I hoped for and have been freed [from slavery]."This, then, is the [spiritual] station of Moses (almaqām al-Mūsawī), for the Most High has said "strike for them a dry path in the sea, fearing not overtaking, neither afraid" [Q 20.77], which falls between disaggregation and cultivation in the [alchemical process of] composition so understand this.' 93 Ibid., fol.38b. 94Q 2.34; 38.71-6. 95Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, H  all mushkilāt, fol.38b.In his longest commentary on the Shudhūr, Jildakī offers his own interpretation of the alchemical symbolism of Adam and Eve: 'The art's Eve (H  awāʾ al-s  ināʿa) is the spirit (rūh  ) and [its] Adam is the soul (nafs).[Standing] between them are Satanic obstacles and earthy densities (kathāʾif ard  iyya), but within the twain are noble, luminous, subtle qualities.How triumphant, then, are those who duly act upon the soul and spirit, preparing