Author’s Notes
Readers interested in learning more about alchemy can find vast amounts of material, including entire libraries, on the subject. If I had to name one scholarly work that I believe would be most helpful, understandable and interesting, it would be a relatively small book called The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy by philosopher and religious historian Mircea Eliade.
Many writings exist that present the explanation Nicolas Flamel (also spelled Nicholas Flammel) gave of finding and eventually deciphering The Book of Abraham the Jew. The material found in this book was taken from the English translation of the French work as printed in London in 1624 for Thomas Walsley, called Hieroglyphical Figures (Which he caused to be Painted upon an Arch in St
