letters from King So-and-so reached me in succession, and he had instructed me to compose a brief work of the utmost concision and unrivalled excellence, containing what must be known about the origin and the return according to the views of its adepts and the foremost scholars, I hastened to carry out his command and fulfil his request.

I had come across compendia written by certain later authors for the princes and kings of their times, and had heard that these rulers had derived no benefit from them. Their authors had neglected the interests of instruction and the means of fostering understanding, leaving unchanged terminology whose meanings were difficult to grasp. Thus, they sacrificed due consideration for their readers to a limited benefit rather than an overall good.”