Arabic Version (via Ruska, trans. Anon)

Full Translation:

0) ...an old man sitting on a golden throne... holding an emerald table... in Syriac, the primordial language:
1) Here (is) a true explanation, concerning which there can be no doubt.
2) It attests: The above from the below, and the below from the above---the work of the miracle of the One.
3) And things have been from this primal substance through a single act. How wonderful is this work! It is the main principle of the world and its maintainer.
4) Its father is the sun and its mother the moon;
5) the wind has borne it in its body, and the earth has nourished it.
6) the father of talismans and the protector of miracles
6a) whose powers are perfect, and whose lights are confirmed (?),
7) a fire that becomes earth.
7a) Separate the earth from the fire... attain the subtle as more inherent than the gross...
8) It rises from earth to heaven... and descends to the earth; thus within it are the forces of the above and the below;
9) because the light of lights within it, thus does the darkness flee before it.
10) The force of forces... overcomes every subtle thing and penetrates into everything gross.
11) The structure of the microcosm is in accordance with the structure of the macrocosm.
12) And accordingly proceed the knowledgeable.
13) And to this aspired Hermes, who was threefold graced with wisdom.
14) And this is his last book, which he concealed in the chamber.

Translation Context

This Arabic version was recovered by the Orientalist Julius Ruska and later translated into English anonymously in 1985. It stems from an Islamic manuscript tradition that positions Hermes not merely as a mythic scribe, but as a priest-prophet whose teachings survive within hidden chambers of wisdom.

Notably, this version frames the tablet as written in Syriac, regarded as the primordial language of revelation. The poetic opening sequence---talisman, golden throne, concealed chamber---acts like an initiation scene, setting this apart from more strictly "academic" renderings.

Several turns of phrase emphasize the embodied, dynamic nature of the One Thing: the "light of lights," "fire that becomes earth," and the inversion of typical spiritual hierarchies. This reflects a Hermetic worldview fused with early Islamic cosmology and occult science.

Axiom-by-Axiom Interpretive Notes

Axiom 3: "Primal substance through a single act" underscores metaphysical monism: creation is framed less as a dualistic struggle and more as emanation through unified activity.

Axiom 6a: The idea of "confirmed lights" is rare and suggests illumination that is validated through lived gnosis rather than abstract belief.

Axiom 7a: The subtle being "more inherent than the gross" flips the usual hierarchy and treats the intangible as the deeper substrate.

Axiom 11: This explicit microcosm/macrocosm line is a direct, unmistakable statement of Correspondence rather than an implied metaphor.

Arabic Version (via Ruska)

Translation Context

Axiom-by-Axiom Interpretive Notes