BİRİNCİ FEN · ÜÇÜNCÜ BÂB · ONUNCU FASIL · Birinci Madde
Article One
It describes the primary elements that constitute the body.
O Noble one! Know that the scholars of anatomy (the people of dissection) have said:
There are four basic principles ( *erkân-ı erba’a*) which are simple bodies, and they are the initial components (*cüz*) of the human body and other animals. Because composite (*mürekkep*) bodies of various kinds come into being through mixtures of these four basic elements.
These principles (*erkân*) are four; two are light and two are heavy. The light ones are fire and air, and the heavy ones are water and earth. For the element of fire, through the influence of its own essence (*cevher*), flows and mixes with other elements, breaking the coldness of the two heavy and cold elements with its heat. They cease to be elements and proceed to the degree of temperament (*mizac*). Two heavy elements come into being and become a firm substance for the placement of the organs. The two light elements are the cause and aid in the movement of the organs.
The primary powers of the *erkân* are four states: heat, coldness, moisture, and dryness. These four are the mothers of the elements, as they exist within the aforementioned principles. The qualities pertaining to these elements are excesses upon natural forms. For they transform from state to state in conditions of warming (*tesahhu*) and cooling (*teberrüd*). Whereas natural forms remain with their own essence in every condition, not undergoing change.
If these four states were inherent within the essences of the natural forms, then they too would change and not remain fixed. Therefore, if the four basic elements, which are simple bodies, were to gather together by diminishing, and if they were to come into close contact upon three complete mixtures (*mürekkep*), exerting influence with their opposing directions, so that each of those simple bodies diminishes the intensity of the other, then a middle thing arises between them, possessing qualities opposed to one another, from which each takes a quality; and this is called temperament (*mizac*). The three mixtures – namely mineral, plant, and animal – all come into being through it.
But incomplete composite bodies, such as clouds, shooting stars, and the like celestial bodies, arise from elements without temperament. Therefore, they quickly perish.