Secret of Secrets.

Born in Rayy, in present-day Iran, Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (also known by the Latinized version of his name, Rhazes or Rasis, 865--925) is recognized as one of the intellectual luminaries of the medieval Islamic world. Of Razi's astonishing output of more than 150 works in all the scientific disciplines of his era, Sirr al-Asrār (Secret of secrets) is among the dozen or more titles dedicated to alchemy. Sirr al-Asrār consists of three chapters. The first, Fī maʻrifat al-ʻaqāqīr (On simples), describes the raw materials of alchemy. The second, Fī maʻrifat al-ʼālāt (On instruments), provides short descriptions of the experimental apparatus necessary for alchemical work, including al-kur (laboratory furnaces), al-ʼinbiq (alembics), al-qadah (bowls), and al-fihr (pestles). The third chapter, Fī maʻrifat al-tadābīr (On methods), makes up the major part of the work and discusses many detailed procedures for the chemical manipulation of zirnikh or zarnikh (arsenic), nushadur (sal ammoniac), kibrit (sulphur), and other materials. Sirr al-Asrār has been produced in several modern editions. Editors have commented on the numerous textual variations among the surviving manuscript copies-variations that perhaps can be attributed to the existence of a different but similarly titled alchemical work, Kitāb al-Asrār (Book of secrets, known in the Latinate world as Liber Secretorum) by the same author. The manuscript copy presented here is missing the final pages of the work. It is undated, although it was likely copied in the 18th or 19th centuries.