Ish Adam · איש אדם

A commentary on the book of Raziel that opens with the birth of Ish Adam to Maruya: at times an explanation "letter by letter, word by word", at times "the permutation of one word among the words", and at times a skipping of what is hinted before or after — in the book itself, in the one before it or the one after it. Ish Adam, it says, "is known to be Ashmedai permuted", and Raziel "is the one called Ish Adam"; the place names Raziel reversed it straightens for the reader — Qarsasta into Saraqusta, Nagura into Aragon — "for all the Torah and all speech is straight and reversed". The commentary follows the book in order: the four powers, of which the fourth "taught the ways of attainment and permuted the Name and revolved it"; Raziel's account of his seclusion and of the way he taught "in the knowledge of the Name"; and four verses whose initial letters spell mishpat reversed, with four circles — "truly the arrangement of the Explicit Name" — until Raziel returns "to the ways of prophecy" and "ends his book with the consolation of Israel and Jerusalem". At its close: "so we finish this book here and begin Sefer ha-Berit".