On the Tincture of Gold or True Potable Gold

it might appear to be made from gold, yet [it is] irreducible by fire into gold, spiritual and penetrative, strengthening and refreshing the vital spirits so that they may overcome their enemies. Let it also be endowed with this virtue, that it can convert imperfect metals—above all Mercury, Saturn, and Luna—into pure, refined gold; not, indeed, like a fixed Tincture, which with profit tinges baser metals in fusion, but rather perfecting them particularly by the humid way, by the benefit of digestion, where some portion of the metal is converted into a better state. For this Tincture of gold, or salt, is exceedingly volatile, so that it can in no way resist fire; but it melts like wax in a gentle heat and is sublimed like red salt, [and is] soluble in spirits of wine so that it may be used for medical purposes.

Furthermore, potable gold, when tasted, must not be corrosive or astringent like other solutions of gold: nor should it stain the hands, nails, and hair with a black or dark color, but rather render them more elegant: nor should it stain copper, iron, tin, or lead with rust or a black color, but rather with a more elegant color. Nor should the body of Sol be reducible after extraction has been performed, nor [be turned] into white gold, which can recover its former color through Antimony and aq. reg. [aqua regia], but it should be like ash-colored earth, and capable of being sublimed like arsenic in a gentle heat, not hardening under the test of the cupel. If it is endowed with these gifts, it deserves to be called a true Tincture of gold: if not, it is not such, but rather a certain Sophisticated potable gold, from which one must abstain.