"Truth! Certainty! That in which there is no doubt! That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above. The work of wonders is from One."
Earlier contrast (Latin 12th c.):
"True, without falsehood, certain, most certain."
→ Same intent, but without the Qur'anic cadence or metaphysical immediacy.
The tone is devotional, firm, and cosmic -- closer to revelation than instruction.
The Balinas recension injects Hermetic metaphysics with Islamic cosmology. "The One" ceases to be a metaphysical monad and becomes spiritually resonant with Tawhid. The cosmology evolves from a neutral emanation model to a sacred unfolding of divine unity.
This version also introduces a tone of cosmic inevitability: the universe doesn't just function -- it obeys. That tonal shift matters, because it reframes Hermetic processes as divinely sanctioned laws.
The era was defined by philosophical synthesis: Greek metaphysics entering a monotheistic empire. Framing the Tablet as revelatory allowed it to coexist with Islamic orthodoxy while preserving alchemical philosophy.
The Abbasid court favored knowledge that reinforced cosmic order under divine rule. By encoding monotheistic resonance into Hermetic axioms, this translation could circulate without suspicion.
The Balinas text becomes the **root of the Arabic Hermetic tradition and directly influences Ibn Umail, later Islamic alchemists, and ultimately the Latin medieval tradition.
Its monotheistic framing means later translations inherit a sense of cosmological unity that feels theological, not neutral -- shaping Western alchemy in ways rarely acknowledged.
By reframing Hermetic unity into a monotheistic metaphysics, the Balinas version permitted Hermetic wisdom to survive under imperial theological authority. It also centralized interpretive power in the hands of scholarly elites who could claim that the Tablet affirmed -- rather than challenged -- the dominant cosmology.