The clouds are gathered from the air that has condensed into droplets: for the air, by its natural lightness, lifts up the water vapours of the earth and the sea, consisting of the smallest droplets, and keeps them at a height, where, whether boiled by the fire of the sun, or changed by the air they have traveled, they all become fresh: thus we, wishing to change the taste of the water, usually pour sea-water into the earth. and unleavened into sea grasses.

Chapter 33. About rains

Rains grow from cloud droplets: they gradually gather into large droplets, and the air nature can no longer withstand them; Then, in large numbers, they immediately roll down to the ground, sometimes torn off by the wind, then melting under the rays of the sun. Actually, we call slow and prolonged rains, and sudden and rapid rains. [150]

Chapter 42. About the Red Sea

The Red Sea is so called because of its pink-red color, which, however, is not inherent in it by nature - its water is colored so because of the neighboring shores of a blood-red color. [And, however, it may be the other way around:] it was from the name of this [sea] that surik, and other [red] paints, and precious stones [rubies] began to be called "red". This sea is divided into two gulfs, of which the Persian Gulfs face Aquilon,23 and the Arabian Gulf, the latter being 115 miles from the Egyptian Sea.

Chapter 43. About the Nile

The Nile River, whose source is between sunrise and Austrom,24 serves the inhabitants of Egypt instead of rain, because there is scarcely any rain or cloud on account of the heat of the sun. In the month of May, when Zephyr blows,25 and the waves, throwing out sand, encumber the mouth through which it flows into the sea, the Nile gradually swells, and, forced to move back, irrigates the plains of Egypt; when the wind stops, it breaks through the piles of sand and returns to its bed.

Chapter 44. About how the earth is connected with the waters

The Creator has girded the globe with water in the very middle, and the water from everywhere runs down to the center and cannot fall, since there is always earth under it; and just as hard and dry earth could not remain a single whole, but would crumble without moisture, so water in its turn could not maintain its equilibrium by itself if it were not supported by the earth; In this way they mutually encompass each other: the earth exposes its breast to the water, and it runs all over it inside, without, above, below, enveloping it in streams like fetters, and sometimes bursting out even on the tops of the highest mountains.

Chapter 45. Land Location

The foundation of the earth is its own stability, and the abyss envelops it like a cloak. For just as the place of fire can be nowhere but in fire, and the place of water is only in water, and the place of spirit is in spirit, so there can be no other place for the earth, all parts of which cling to each other, but in itself: nature herself keeps it there and does not allow it to fall anywhere. Being located in the center or on the axis of the world, the earth, the heaviest [of the elements], occupies the lowest and middle place among all creations, while water, air, and fire rush higher as by their natural lightness. and according to the regulations [26]. [151]

Chapter 46. That the earth is like a sphere

When we say that the earth is round, this does not mean that its shape is absolutely round, for it is the alternation of mountains and plains that makes it irregular; But if we encircle the earth [in any direction] by connecting [mentally] with lines all [points of equal height], we get the figure of an absolute circle. That is why we always see the constellations of the northern hemisphere, and never the southern hemisphere; and on the contrary, our constellations are not visible to others, because the globe interferes, Troglodyte and his neighbor the Egyptian never see the Seven Stars, but Italy does not know Canopus; however, the inhabited part of this globe extends from east to west almost twice as far as from south to north: the heat does not allow the first to come close, and the frost to the second.

Chapter 47. About the belts of the earth