gold leaf

Ingredients

gold leaf, gum arabic, mercury, mastic, quicklime, old cheese

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Solution of gold (Ar. hall al-dahab): Take a porcelain bowl or a stone cutting board. Gum arabic is scratched until it becomes like honey. Rub the bowl with it. A leaf of gold is flattened on it and it is crushed with the gum until it gets thinner. Write with it (p. 82). A second recipe involves putting gold in a crucible near fire with mercury (or mastic) and crushing it until gold remains as a 'calcified dust' before adding gum-water (p. 82, 84).

Evidence

"Take a porcelain bowl or a stone cutting board. Gum arabic is scratched until it becomes like honey. Rub the bowl with it. A leaf of gold is flattened on it and it is crushed with the gum until it gets thinner."

Remarks

The Syriac tradition describes alchemy as the work of the art of gold and silver (p. 80). These recipes often used mercury to process gold leaves, a technique documented across Graeco-Egyptian and Syriac traditions (p. 85). Mention of a 'cheese glue' involving roasted old cheese, boiled and mixed with quicklime (p. 81).