Numerous beautiful manuscripts of the Sun of Knowledge have survived, various of which have been used as a basis for this present work. Images and descriptions of amulets and talismans adorn it. Written in Egypt in the thirteenth century by a Sufi mystic and mage of Algerian origin, the Shams presents the fundamentals of Arabic-Islamic occult work – from spiritual cosmology and astrology (including various particularly lunar magics) to working with spirits and jinn, magical employment of letters and numbers, and the occult applications of the Qur’an – thereby comprising a veritable encyclopedia of Islamicate magical wisdom and formulae. Feared by some, hallowed by others, it is one of the most famous – or infamous – books in the Arabic-speaking and Islamicate world. The Sun of Knowledge ( Shams al-Ma‘arif) is one of the most revered historical grimoires of the Arabic corpus.
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