ABSTRACT
Gnostic ideas extensively influenced Late Antique religious life, including alchemy, that taught that "gnosis," or a kind of knowledge illuminated by faith in newly revealed truths, could bring about salvation and enlightenment. The Gnostics borrowed from Neoplatonism the notion of the Demiurge, referring to the skilled creator of the material world. According to the Hermetica God creates the world through the Demiurge that Neoplatonist notion shared by alchemy and Gnosticism which combines both male and female principles. If Islam was seen as a threat to Christianity, the Muslims who conquered Egypt in the seventh century were the greatest heirs of Egyptian alchemy and responsible for its transmission to the West. Among other Muslim theorists, Muhammad al Razi or Rhazes, who proclaimed alchemy "the astrology of the lower world," became well known for his alleged transmutation of base metals into gold.
