7.1.3  Hermes Trismegistus

As a divine source of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus was credited with tens of thousands of highly esteemed writings, but his true identity is disputed among the Egyptians, Greeks and some modern scholars, with philosophical confusion between Hermeticism and Gnosticism. Greeks in Hellenistic Egypt considered Hermes and Thoth to be equivalent gods of writing and magic, and they worshiped them as one, in the Temple of Thoth, which they also called Hermopolis. Many later Christian writers and priests considered Hermes to be a wise prophet who predicted the advent of Christianity.

However, according to various Islamic traditions, Hermes Trismegistus is the same prophet Enoch mentioned in the Biblical literature, who is also mentioned in Quran as prophet Idris whom Allah elevated to a high place [19:56-57], which is the orb of the Sun, according to Ibn al-Arabi, as we mentioned in chapter IV. Moreover, the Jabirian corpus which contains the oldest documented source for the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, translated by Jabir himself, together with the later alchemical writings of Ikhwan al-Safa, and many other later sources, all identify Hermes Trismegistus as prophet Idris, the infallible Prophet, who traveled from Egypt to outer space. Similar accounts are given by Ibn al-Arabi in many places of the Meccan Revelations and other books. Furthermore, he explained in chapter 22 of his Bezels of Wisdom that Elijah and Enoch are two different prophets having the same identity: “Idris is (himself) Elijah who was a prophet before Noah, but Allah elevated him to a high place, in the heart of the orbs, which is the orb of the Sun, where he stayed until he was sent again to Baalbek”.

Ibn al-Arabi then explains in the Meccan Revelations that Prophet Idris, whom he often refers to as “Mudawi al-Kulum”: “the healer of injuries”, is the Pole of Spirits, and that the first secret that was revealed to him is the First Age, from which all other ages are formed, and the first work he was honored with is transmuting iron into Silver and Gold. However, he did not perform that for any material gain, but to show that the state of perfection can be achieved and that everyone can revert back to the perfect form on which Allah has created him, and that is what the wise wants out of Alchemy which is nothing but the knowledge of weights and quantities [I.152.15].

Ibn al-Arabi then continues in explaining that when Allah created the human being He originated Adam, who is the father of this human evolution, and He composed his body from hotness, coldness, moistness and dryness, or actually: cold-dry, cold-moist, hot-moist and hot-dry, which are the four humors or mixtures that are: black pile, phlegm, blood and yellow pile, that are in the body of the macrocosm the same four elements: fire, air, water and earth. So when these four humors or elements are well balanced, one achieves perfection in physical and psychical health, as well as the perfect metal form [I.152-153].

The seven heavens and earths, the twelve zodiac zones, and the twenty-eight Moon mansions, which are the roots of letters as well as elementary particles; all are arranged and influenced by the four elements of Nature.