Rosicrucian Alchemy

"Just as students of comparative religion have noted similarities in the externals and doctrines of many faiths, in mysticism Sufism has continuously stressed the essential identity of the stream of transmission of inner knowledge. In the East the Mogul prince Dara Shikoh wrote the "Confluence of the Two Seas," stressing the meeting between Sufism and early Hindu mysticism. 

The Rosicrucians in the West adopted almost literally the teaching of the Spanish illuminist Sufis in claiming an unbroken succession of inner teaching, in which they included "Hermes". The Western illuminati included Mohammed in their chain of transmitters. Count Michael Maier in 1617 wrote "Symbola Aurea Mensae Duodecim Nationum" [Contributions of Twelve Nations to the Golden Table], in which he showed that the Sufi tradition of a succession of teachers was still being maintained. 

Among the alchemical teachers were several whom the Sufis also
recognize, including Westerners who had studied Saracen lore. They are: 

Hermes of Egypt 
Mary the Hebrew 
Democritus of Greece 
Morienus of Rome 
Avicenna [Ibn Sina] of Arabia 
Albertus Magnus of Germany 
Arnaud de Villeneuve of France 
Thomas Aquinas of Italy 
Raymond Lully of Spain 
Roger Bacon of England
Melchior Cibiensis of Hungary 
Michael Sendivogius of Poland 

All Western alchemy, of course, is attributed by tradition to Geber [Jabir Ibn el-Hayyan], the Sufi."

- "The Sufis" by Idris Shah