Kimyāʾ (formula) is to be content with what exists and to renounce desiring what does not exist. The Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī (may Allah ennoble his face), said: "Contentment is an inexhaustible treasure." ... Kimyāʾ-yi ʿawām (the common people's kimyāʾ) is to exchange the eternal, otherworldly commodity for the perishable dunyā (worldly) goods.
Kimyāʾ-yi khawāṣṣ (the elect's kimyāʾ) is to purify the qalb (the heart) from the cosmos by preferring the Creator of the universe. (Kāshānī, 71; Jāmiʿ, 94)
(See also qanāʿa)
kimyāʾ-yi saʿādat Kimyāʾ-yi saʿādat (the formula of happiness) is found only in the treasuries of Allah Most High. In the heavens are the essences of the angels, and on earth are the hearts of the ʿārif walīs (gnostic friends of God). Whoever seeks to attain this kimyāʾ without the station of prophethood has gone astray. The deeds of such a person become invalid currency. While he thinks himself wealthy, he will be bankrupt on the Day of Resurrection. (Kimyāʾ, 3)
Kimyāʾ-yi saʿādat is a science particular to things, both material and spiritual, that can be measured and weighed. The power of this science manifests in transformations, that is, in the various states of a substance. This is a natural, spiritual, and divine science. We call it a divine science because, with the transformation of meanings in a thing, emergence, descent, conjunction, and various names occur.
Between what is condensed and what is diffused
The states of the measures
Our mounts have strayed from the paths
The inimitable bewilderment of the secret that cannot be attained
Revelation sends down the rulings it commands
Consisting of command and prohibition
(Futūḥāt, II, 267)
Kimyāʾ-yi saʿādat is to purify and cleanse the nafs (the lower self) by avoiding ignoble traits; to acquire virtues and to adorn the nafs with those virtues. (Kāshānī, 70; Jāmiʿ, 94)