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THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE
which all straight lirtes drawn to 'the Heaven of the Moon are
equal and when we ; speak of " down, v we jnean this point or
'what lies nearest to it and when we ; speak of " up, we mean the
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remotest heaven, or what lies nearest to it, this being a heave/i
above the Zodiacal Heaven, having nought beyond it, for with it
the material world terminates, or comes to an end 2 .
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Now when God most Blessed and most High* by His effective
Wisdom, desired to produce in this world minerals, plants, animals
and men, He created the stars, and in particular the sun and
moon, whereon He made the growth ,and decay of these to
depend. And the special property of the sun is that () by its
rejlectjpn it warms all things when it stands opposite to them,
and drawtf them -up, that is attracts them, by the medium of
heat. So, by its opposition, it warmed the water ; and, by
means of the warmth, attracted it for a long while, until one
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quarter of the earth's surface was laid bare, by, reason of the
much va^pour which ascended and rose up therefrom. Now it is
of the nature of water to be capable of becoming stone, as it is
admitted to do tn certain places, and as may be actually witnessed
3 . So mountains were produced from the water by the
glow of the sun ; and thereby the earth became somewhat
elevated above what it had been, while the water retreated from
it and dried up, according to that fashion which is witnessed.
This portion, therefore, is called the " Uncovered Quarter," for the
reason above stated and is also called the ; " Inhabited Quarter,"
because animals dwell therein.
SECTION III.
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When the influences of these stars had acted on the peripheries
of these elements, and had been reflected back from that
imaginary [central] p,oint, there were produced from the midst
of the earth and water, by the aid of the wind and the fire,
the products of
tjie inorganic world, such as mountains, mines,
clouds, snow, rain, thunder, lightning, shooting stars, comets,
meteo/s, thunder-bolts, halos, conflagrations, fulminations, earthquakes,
and springs of all kinds, as has been fully explained in its
proper place when discussing VAC effects of the celestial bodies,
but for the explanation and amplification of which there is no
room in this brief manual. But when time began, and the cycles
of heaven became continuous, and the constitution of this lower
world matured, and the time was come for the fertilisation of
1 This outermost, or nipth, celestial sphere is the Primum mobile of the Ptolemaic
system, called al-Falaku'l-Atlas or Falaku'l-Afldk by the Muslim philosophers.
2 That the material universe is finite and bounded by the Ejnpyrean, or Falaku'l-
Afldk, is gerjejally accepted by Persian philosophers. See my Year amongst the
Flrsians, pp. 143-144.
3 The author apparently alludes to petrifaction and the formation pf stalactytes.
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