Every claim on this site comes from a credible source, and the source is always shown so you can check it yourself. How we check
Credible Theories Surprise me
Egypt and Hermes · Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina)

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes

EvidenceDocumentedThe text exists and is quoted from a published translation. What it describes is a separate question.
What this means

Primary records exist: an original document, a published text, an official file or a dated report. We link to them. This level says the record exists and what it says, not that every claim in it is true.

See all five labels

ReferenceEmerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina)
WrittenArabic, c. 600–900 CE; Latin from the 1100s
SetClaimed to be found in Hermes' tomb
Tis true without lying, certain and most true. That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to do the miracles of one only thing.

Translation: Isaac Newton, c. 1680 · About the translator

Read it literally

This is the real Emerald Tablet, and it is short. It is about alchemy, not aliens.

What scholars say

Earliest known in the Arabic 'Book of the Secret of Creation'. Hermes Trismegistus is a Greek merging of the Egyptian god Thoth.

Looks like technology

Quick answers about Emerald Tablet

Where is Emerald Tablet found?

Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina) (Egypt and Hermes). Translation quoted: Isaac Newton, English translation of the Emerald Tablet (c. 1680; Keynes MS 28).

When was Emerald Tablet written?

Arabic, c. 600–900 CE; Latin from the 1100s.

What do scholars say about Emerald Tablet?

Earliest known in the Arabic 'Book of the Secret of Creation'. Hermes Trismegistus is a Greek merging of the Egyptian god Thoth.

Rabbit holes in this passage

TextEmerald TabletIn the oldest telling, the tablet is found in an underground chamber, held in the hands of an old man seated on a throne; its dozen or so lines, credited to Hermes, became the founding charter of European alchemy: "That which is below is like that which is above." The earliest known version is Arabic. Where did it come from?PersonHermes TrismegistusCosimo de' Medici once had his translator set Plato aside because Hermes had to come first. The "thrice-great" sage, part Egyptian Thoth and part Greek Hermes, was credited with books of wisdom, astrology, magic and alchemy; scholars date those books to the Roman era. So who really wrote them?GodThothMillions of mummified ibis birds were buried in catacombs as offerings to Thoth, the ibis-headed Egyptian god of writing and the moon. Stories give him hidden writings too, including a Book of Thoth locked in nested boxes at the bottom of the Nile; reading it brought disaster on the man who took it. What did it say?

Sources

  1. Isaac Newton, English translation of the Emerald Tablet (c. 1680; Keynes MS 28)Primary text
  2. Emerald Tablet, multiple translations including Isaac Newton's (c. 1680), sacred-texts.comPrimary text
  3. Corpus Hermeticum I–XIII, trans. G. R. S. Mead (sacred-texts.com)Primary text
  4. Plato, Phaedrus 274c–275b, trans. Benjamin JowettPrimary text

Scholarly dates are rounded. The wording follows the named public-domain translation.

Updated