A Persian Muslim philosopher from Nishapur, surnamed’Hujjatu-l-lslam, (lslam,s convincing proof), who did for Islam what Thomas Aquinas did for Christianity. His works were turned into Latin from the Arabic by the ceaseless collaboration of Avendeath, the Jew of Toledo, and Gundisalvus, who became Bishop of Toledo.

Algazel’s Kimtya al_sa,Gclct (Alchemy of Happiness) is typical of the spiritual alchemical texts so popular in the Middle Ages, that derived from the Neoplatonist commentaries on Plato’s Timaeus and Aristotle’s De Anima.