Thesauri et armamentarii medico-chymici appendix [...] Testamentum Hadrianeum

The Testament of Hadrian

The Master Stone Lapis magister the Philosopher's Stone as a teacher or guiding principle rules by its own power, for it must be returned thereafter to its own innate and first matter materia. It commands imperfect things to take on a perfect form. This stone alone can do this, for it is not like any other thing found beneath the heavens; just as it is the unique property of the Magnet lodestone to pull iron to itself, or to join itself to iron. From this comes the perfect honor for the physician. From this single key hangs the magisterium the mastery or completed alchemical work, the crown of our theater, a sublime art bringing glorious triumphs to the craftsman!

Therefore, whoever you are that desires these things, stay content and cling to that one matter which I have named. Do not dwell upon those matters which many a philosopher alchemist offers you, described in various books, searching through various sterile cisterns of materials far removed from the true Fountain. There is but one, and one alone remains as the door to our secret: seek this one, and by seeking rightly, you will find what you wish for.

But what is this matter, you ask? Under what stars is it to be found, and by what name is it finally to be marked? It has already been said before that she is the mother of the metals. Whatever the earth exhibits anywhere along with its own minerals, she conceives, she nourishes, and she brings forth from her mineral womb when the times have finally made the birth mature. I add this: she generates the very race of men, and she nourishes those who are born and sustains their bodies with firm limbs. She is a powerful Hermaphrodite a being containing both male and female principles, carrying within a single body both Female and Male, bearing twelve-fold original: "bissexas" powers in her seed.