s very prettily in
an allegorical vision of the old hermetic philosopher Zosimos, who seems
to have copied it, as Reitzenstein notes, from an Egyptian Nekyia. I quote
from Hoefer (Hist. Chim., I, pp. 256-259):

"I slept and saw a priest standing before an altar shaped like a cup and
with several steps by which to climb to it. [First 15, later 7 steps are
mentioned.] And I heard a voice crying aloud, 'I have finished climbing
and descending these 15 steps, resplendent with light.' After listening to
the priest officiating at the altar I asked him what this resounding voice
was whose sound had struck my ear. The priest answered me, saying: 'I am
he who is ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}), the priest of the sanctuary, and I am under the
weight of the power that overwhelms me. For at the break of day came a
deputy who seized me, killed me with a sword, cut me in pieces; and after
flaying the skin from my head, he mixed the bones with the flesh and
burned me in the fire to teach me that the spirit is born with the body.
That is the power that overwhelms me.' While the priest was saying that,
his eyes became as blood, and he vomited all his flesh. I saw him mutilate
himself, rend himself with his teeth and fall on the ground. Seized with
terror I awoke, and I began to ponder and ask myself if this indeed was
the nature and the composition of the water. And I congratulated myself
upon having reasoned well [namely in a train of thought preceding the
vision]. Soon I slept again and perceived the same altar, and on this
altar I saw water boiling with a noise and many men in it. Not finding any
one in the neighborhood to explain this phenomenon, I advanced to enjoy
the spectacle at the altar. Then I noticed a man with gray hair and thin,
who said to me, 'What are you looking at?' 'I am looking,' I answered with
surprise, 'at the boiling of the water and the men who are boiling there
still alive.' 'The sight you see,' replied he, 'is the beginning, the end
and the transmutation ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}).' I asked him what t