Book of the Secret of Creation

work attributed to Apollonius of Tyana

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June 22, 2026

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The Book of the Secret of Creation is an ancient text, possibly dating back to the 7th or 6th century CE, though some believe it represents much earlier writings. It is traditionally attributed to Apollonius of Tyana, a 1st-century Neo-Pythagorean mystic, though this attribution is generally considered inaccurate.12

This work is significant because it contains the Emerald Tablet, a foundational text in alchemy and Hermetic traditions. The Book of the Secret of Creation is thought to have been important to Arabic alchemists and is the earliest known version of the Emerald Tablet. The text discusses theories of nature and mentions alchemical materials, including sal ammoniac, for the first time in the West. While Apollonius of Tyana's biography does not mention alchemy, the theories within the Book of the Secret of Creation have an alchemical character.123

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Emerald Tablet
…in an Arabic text called Book of the Secret of Creation, thought by some to have been written in the 9th century ce. About the 12th century, the Emerald Tablet was translated into Latin and subsequently into many modern languages.
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…in an Arabic text called Book of the Secret of Creation, thought by some to have been written in the 9th century ce. About the 12th century, the Emerald Tablet was translated into Latin and subsequently into many modern languages.
Read More

alchemy
Arabic alchemy
…from a larger work called Book of the Secret of Creation, which exists in Latin and Arabic manuscripts and was thought by the Muslim alchemist ar-Rāzī to have been written during the reign of Caliph al-Maʾmūn (ad 813–833), though it has been attributed to the 1st-century-ad pagan mystic Apollonius of…
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…from a larger work called Book of the Secret of Creation, which exists in Latin and Arabic manuscripts and was thought by the Muslim alchemist ar-Rāzī to have been written during the reign of Caliph al-Maʾmūn (ad 813–833), though it has been attributed to the 1st-century-ad pagan mystic Apollonius of…
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