Personal opinion on: The philosophers Stone.
One of the greatest topics of both modern and classical alchemy with mythical properties. Its said that it can make one immortal, makes gold out of lead and cures all illness, a multitude of wonders. Its almost ridiculous how a artificial stone shall be the solution for mankinds oldest desire and fear, while also being seemingly impossible to create (otherwise the stone would be an mass produced product). In my opinion this is on purpose, its an hint on the true purpose of the stone as an allegory for the unachievable. The very first mention of the Stone is in Zosimos Cheirokmeta (300 AD) in which its said that it can produce the elixir of life. The Arabs, very keen for classical literature build upon old greek texts and improved medicine, alchemy and mathematics. Among those ideas was the...