“This figure is found in the Museum Hermeticum. The athanor and the principal symbolic animals of Hermeticism are shown. This athanor has a somewhat fanciful shape, but its main parts can still be recognized: the tower topped with a dome, the sand bath, and the philosophical egg. The serpent enclosed in the egg represents the material of the stone. The lion is the symbol of fixed Sulfur, the eagle symbolizes the volatile, Mercury. The serpent and the dragon are symbols of Matter. The raven represents the color black, the swan the color white, the peacock the colors of the rainbow, and finally, the phoenix symbolizes the color red."
— Théorie & Symboles Des Alchimistes, c. 1891 by Albert Poisson
