Maria or Mary the Jewess c. 100 AD is considered the first true alchemist. In her works she mentions a clear white herb growing on small mountains and links it to the stone of the Greek philosophers. A few plant species match her description. But is it more than simple botany?
Working c. 100 AD, Maria is a Jewish sage and teacher who influences alchemy through its existence, about 2000 years. Educated and well-spoken, she's praised by Zosimos and Michael Maier, revered in Islam and called Maria the Prophetess in Renaissance Europe.
"Maria utters wonders briefly, for she thunders such things
She fixes the fugacious matter with the double gum in the last hour
She binds three powerful substances into the ends of the tubes
Maria, the light of the dew, binds a band in three hours
Daughter of Pluto, she unites love's affinities
Delights in things roasted, sown, assembled in threes."
Arnaldus de Villanova (1245-1313)
Above is the woodcut / engraving of Maria with her herb, based on art by Renaissance artist Matthaeus Merian for a translation by Michael Maier in the 17th century. It's been reproduced many times since then.
The symbol for sun ☉ gold / sulfur is seen on the left and that of moon ☽ silver / quicksilver on the right. The sulfur-mercury theory is one of the central principles of alchemy.
The identity of the herb can't be deduced from its depiction above because the art follows the Renaissance symbolism of five branches indicating the five planets known to mankind: Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter.
The planets are also associated with metals, starting from lower left branch:
Mercury: Quicksilver (metal Mercury after 700 AD)
Venus: Copper
Mars: Iron
Jupiter: Tin
Saturn: Lead
Matthaeus Merian's art illustrates the fumes to which Maria refers, flowing from the pots top and bottom to surround the precious plant on its small mountain and flow together again. This suggests alchemical processes of separation, purification and (re)unification of opposites.
The clear white herb grows on the small mountains, says Maria, and later mentions it also grows in the high mountains. Maria lives in Alexandria, a shining port city on the Mediterranean on the west side of the Nile Delta, not very close to mountains.
Mary's plant could be lunary (Botrychium lunaria) or moonwort, prized in nature magic. It's said to embody the cosmic powers of the moon and should be picked on a full moon night. While B. lunaria does grow on hills, it's not really white, and Maria stresses the white.
It could be another lunary. Lunaria annua is known as lunaria, silver dollar plant, honesty, money plant and moonwort. There are various species of Lunaria.
They produce white or pale disc-shaped seed casings translucent in light. Lunaria annua is best known for this trait and often brightens up flower bouquets. It's considered lucky for money and as a guardian of truth.
This matches the description by Maria as a clear white herb growing on small mountains, except these Lunaria species don't like to grow on mountains, preferring well drained lowland soil and meadows.
Another possiblity is the khella plant, which grows everywhere. It's revered for its medicinal properties and produces large heads of white flowers.
While white herbs, flowers and plants abound, the nearest mountains are in the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian desert. But is Maria speaking literally? The language of alchemy is often vague, symbolic or metaphorical.
The herb is mentioned among her instructions and recommendations for the opus. In its most famous reference it enters a conversation between Maria and the philosopher Aros.
Maria tells multiple times of the "clear white precious herb found on the hillocks." Hillocks are synonymous with small hills or mounds, possibly "small mountains".
On the third occasion, she clarifies "the two fumes represent the essence of this Art" and "the pure and white substance is extracted from small mountains."
Mary said unto him:
"Aros, and this is more wonderfull concerning this, that it was not among the Ancients, nor did it come to him by curing, or by the Medicinall Art, and that is take the white, clear and honored Herb growing on the Hillocks, and pound it fresh as it is in its Hour, and that is the true Body not flying from the Fire."
Symbolically, when she speaks of the pure and white herb, and the pure and white substance extracted from small mountains, applied to metals it can only be Mercury, known at the time as "argentum vivurn" alive silver or quicksilver.
The true Body not flying from the Fire is consistent with mercury's resistance to fire. However the word zibeic below is also equated with mercury, so this interpretation can be debated. Parallels continue in the significance of mercury to the Philosophers' Stone.
And Aros says, "It is the Stone of Truth?"
And Mary says "Yes. But yet men know not this regimen (rule or way of working) with the speediness thereof."
Aros says, "And what afterwards?"
Mary says,
"Vitrify upon it Kibric or Zibeic (mercury) and there are the two fumes comprehending the two Lights, and project upon that the complement of the Tinctures of the Spirits, and the weights of Truth, and pound it all, and put it to the Fire, and you shall see wonderfull things from them.
"The whole government consists in the temper of the Fire, O how strange it is, how it will be moved from one color to another, in less than an hour of the Day, untill it arrive at the mark of redness and whiteness, and cast away the Fire and permit it to cool ...
" ... and open it and you will find the clear pearly Body to be of the Color of the Poppy of the Wood (celandine) mixt with whiteness and that is it which is incerating [incinerating], liquefying and penetrating, and one golden piece thereof, the weight of a small golden Coin, falleth upon a thousand thousand and two hundred thousand. That is the hidden secret."
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