Geber

Real Name: Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan

Gever lived in the 7th century A.D. His father was executed while he was still young, and he turned towards the study of alchemy and mysticism.

He wrote five books on the following subjects:
1. Of the Investigation or Search of Perfection
2. Of the Sum of Perfection, The first book
3. Of the Sum of Perfection, The second book
4. Of the Invention of Verity
5. Of Furnaces

Geber went beyond the common view of the time of all substances being made of earth, air, water, and fire. He believed that any metal that was dry and smokey was sulphur, and any one that was watery was mercury. The conbinations of such made up all the metals. The different metals were from different purities of the sulphur and mercury; gold being the most pure, balanced, combination of the two.
Geber also outlines how one may create any metal from simple processes (alchemy basically)

Charles Mackay (1814-1889), from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds


Of this philosopher, who devoted his life to the study of alchymy, but few particulars are known. He is thought to have lived in the year 730. His true name was Abou Moussah Djafar, to which was added Al Sofi, or "The Wise," and he was born at Hauran, in Mesopotamia. ¹ Some have thought he was a Greek, others a Spaniard, and others, a prince of Hindostan: but, of all the mistakes which have been made respecting him, the most ludicrous was that made by the French translator of Sprenger's "History of Medicine," who thought, from the sound of his name, that he was a German, and rendered it as the "Donnateur," or Giver. No details of his life are known; but it is asserted, that he wrote more than five hundred works upon the philosopher's stone and the water of life. He was a great enthusiast in his art, and compared the incredulous to little children shut up in a narrow room, without windows or aperture, who, because they saw nothing beyond, denied the existence of the great globe itself. He thought that a preparation of gold would cure all maladies, not only in man, but in the inferior animals and plants. He also imagined that all the metals laboured under disease, with the exception of gold, which was the only one in perfect health. He affirmed, that the secret of the philosopher's stone had been more than once discovered; but that the ancient and wise men who had hit upon it, would never, by word or writing, communicate it to men, because of their unworthiness and incredulity.² But the life of Geber, though spent in the pursuit of this vain chimera, was not altogether useless. He stumbled upon discoveries which he did not seek, and science is indebted to him for the first mention of corrosive sublimate, the red oxide of mercury, nitric acid, and the nitrate of silver.³

For more than two hundred years after the death of Geber, the Arabian philosophers devoted themselves to the study of alchymy, joining with it that of astrology. Of these the most celebrated was Alfarabi.

>>>

1. Biographie Universelle
2. His "sum of perfection," or instructions to students to aid them in the laborious search for the stone and elixir, has been translated into most of the languages of Europe. An English translation, by a great enthusiast in alchymy, one Richard Russell, was published in London in 1686. The preface is dated eight years previously, from the house of the alchymist, "at the Star, in Newmarket, in Wapping, near the Dock." His design in undertaking the translation was, as he informs us, to expose the false pretences of the many ignorant pretenders to the science who abounded in his day.
3. article, Geber, Biographie Universelle