Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius of Tyana was a Neo-Pythagorean philosopher from Cappadocia who lived in the first century CE. Most of what is told about him comes from the Life of Apollonius written by Philostratus about a century later, which describes his travels to India and Egypt, his ascetic life, and miracles such as healing and foretelling events. Pagan writers later held him up as a rival to Jesus, and Christian writers argued against him.

In the Arabic world he became Balinas, a master of talismans and secret knowledge. The Kitab Sirr al-Khaliqa, the Book of the Secret of Creation, compiled in the late 8th or early 9th century and attributed to him, contains the oldest known version of the Emerald Tablet. In its frame story Balinas enters a vault beneath a statue of Hermes and finds an old man holding a tablet of emerald. Historians regard the attribution as legendary.