Full Translation:
1. True, without falsehood, certain, most certain.
2. What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like that which is above. To make the miracle of the one thing.
3. And as all things were made from contemplation of one, so all things were born from one adaptation.
4. Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon.
5. The wind carried it in its womb, the earth breast fed it.
6. It is the father of all ‘works of wonder’ (Telesmi) in the world.
7. Its power is complete if it is turned into earth.
8. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the gross, prudently, with modesty and wisdom.
9. It ascends from the earth into the sky and again descends from the sky to the earth. Thus you will receive the power of the superior and the inferior.
10. By this means you will acquire the glory of the whole world, and so you will drive away all shadows and blindness.
11. This is the whole most strong strength of all strength, for it overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates all solid things.
12. Thus was the world created.
13. From this comes many wondrous applications, because this is the pattern.
14. Therefore am I called Thrice Greatest Hermes, having all three parts of the wisdom of the whole world.
15. Herein have I completely explained the operation of the Sun.
Translation Context
Robert of Chester was an English scholar active during the 12th century, a pivotal era in the Latin West’s rediscovery of classical and Islamic knowledge. His Latin translation of the Emerald Tablet was completed around 1140 CE, working from Arabic source material.
This period saw a surge of translation activity centered around Spain, particularly in Toledo, where Christian, Muslim, and Jewish scholars collaborated. Robert’s work was part of a broader intellectual movement to integrate Arab scientific and philosophical knowledge into the Christian Latin world.
His rendition leans toward scholastic precision, echoing a medieval Christian framework that sought to reconcile mysticism with natural law. His version introduces terms like “Telesmi” and frames Hermetic knowledge within the lens of structured divine hierarchy.
Axiom-by-Axiom Interpretive Notes
Axiom 6: The use of the Arabic term Telesmi to describe the “works of wonder” is a notable divergence. This word is not simply poetic—it points toward an entire worldview in which the miraculous is structured, formulaic, and tied to specific knowledge systems. Robert’s choice to retain this transliterated term hints at a reverence for the technical and magical sciences of Arabic Hermeticism, possibly reflecting exposure to Islamic esoterica that framed the tablet as part of a larger cosmological system.
Axiom 9: The phrasing “ascends from the earth into the sky and again descends” emphasizes a vertical cosmological model, mirroring the Christian medieval concept of heaven and earth. While this can be found in Arabic as well, Robert’s wording aligns with scholastic theological paradigms where spiritual elevation and descent mirror moral and metaphysical hierarchies. The repetition reinforces a sense of divine recursion.
Axiom 11: The phrase “most strong strength of all strength” is both tautological and deliberate. Its redundancy suggests a translator trying to preserve emphasis from an Arabic intensifier that lacks a direct Latin equivalent. This may reflect a cultural inclination toward layering emphasis through repetition, typical in theological rhetoric of the Latin West.
These connotative shifts are not just linguistic; they shape how the Emerald Tablet was read by Western scholars. Where an Arabic reader may have seen a living cosmological code, the Latin reader—guided by Robert’s framing—saw a kind of divine mechanism, structured and moralized through scholastic filters.