Editing Philosopher's stone (section)

===Appearance===
[[File:Michael Maier Atalanta Fugiens Emblem 21.jpeg|thumb|Philosopher's stone as pictured in ''[[Atalanta Fugiens]]'' Emblem 21]]
[[File:The First Key of Basil Valentine. Wellcome M0012394.jpg|thumb|The first key of [[Basil Valentine]], emblem associated with the 'Great Work' of obtaining the Philosopher's stone (''Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine'')]]
Descriptions of the philosopher's stone are numerous and various.<ref>John Read "From Alchemy to Chemistry" p.29</ref> According to alchemical texts, the stone of the philosophers came in two varieties, prepared by an almost identical method: white (for the purpose of making silver), and red (for the purpose of making gold), the white stone being a less matured version of the red stone.<ref name="A German Sage 1423">A German Sage. ''A Tract of Great Price Concerning the Philosophical Stone''. 1423.</ref> Some ancient and medieval alchemical texts leave clues to the physical appearance of the stone of the philosophers, specifically the red stone. It is often said to be orange (saffron coloured) or red when ground to powder. Or in a solid form, an intermediate between red and purple, transparent and glass-like.<ref>John Frederick Helvetius. ''Golden Calf''. 17th Century.</ref> The weight is spoken of as being heavier than gold,<ref name="ReferenceB">Anonymous. ''On the Philosopher's Stone''. (unknown date, possibly 16th century)</ref> and it is soluble in any liquid, and incombustible in fire.<ref>Eirenaeus Philalethes. ''A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby''. 1694 CE</ref>

Alchemical authors sometimes suggest that the stone's descriptors are metaphorical.<ref>Charles John Samuel Thompson. Alchemy and Alchemists. p.70</ref> The appearance is expressed geometrically in ''[[Atalanta Fugiens]]'' Emblem XXI : 
{{blockquote|Make of a man and woman a circle; then a quadrangle; out of this a triangle; make again a circle, and you will have the Stone of the Wise. Thus is made the stone, which thou canst not discover, unless you, through diligence, learn to understand this geometrical teaching.}}
He further describes in greater detail the metaphysical nature of the meaning of the emblem as a divine union of feminine and masculine principles:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nummedal |first1=Tara |last2=Bilak |first2=Donna |date=2020 |title=''Furnace and Fugue'': A Digital Edition of Michael Maier's ''Atalanta fugiens'' (1618) with Scholarly Commentary. |url=https://furnaceandfugue.org/atalanta-fugiens/emblem21.html |location=Charlottesville |publisher=University of Virginia Press |page=Emblem XXI |isbn=978-0-8139-4558-3 |access-date=15 October 2022 |archive-date=15 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015031412/https://furnaceandfugue.org/atalanta-fugiens/emblem21.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{blockquote|In like manner the Philosophers would have the quadrangle reduced into a triangle, that is, into body, Spirit, and Soul, which three do appear in three previous colors before redness, for example, the body or earth in the blackness of Saturn, the Spirit in a lunar whiteness, as water, the Soul or air in a solar citrinity: then will the triangle be perfect, but this likewise must be changed into a circle, that is, into an invariable redness: By which operation the woman is converted into the man, and made one with him, and the senary the first number of the perfect completed by one, two, having returned again to a unit, in which is eternal rest and peace.}}

[[Jean de Roquetaillade|Rupescissa]] uses the imagery of the Christian passion, saying that it ascends "from the sepulcher of the Most Excellent King, shining and glorious, resuscitated from the dead and wearing a red diadem...".<ref>[[Leah DeVun]]. ''Prophecy, alchemy, and the end of time: John of Rupescissa in the late Middle Ages''. Columbia University Press, 2009. p.118</ref>