Juan Acevedo embarks on a semantic journey to track the origin and adventures of the Greek term
stoicheion which for at least eighteen centuries from Pythagoras to Fibonacci simultaneously
meant element letter and numeral. Focusing on this triple meaning and on how it was
translated and interpreted in Latin Hebrew and Arabic - especially in key texts of the
Abrahamic faiths- a metaphysical study takes shape. With touches of alchemy and theology it
reveals how a shared fundamental alphanumeric cosmology underlay many basic paradigms of
science and faith around the Mediterranean until the advent of the Indo-Arabic numerals broke
the marriage of letter and numeral. Careful readings of Plato Philolaos Nicomachus and Philo
of Genesis and the Sefer Yetsira of the Qur'an the Ikhwan al-Safa' and Ibn 'Arabi are all
woven together into a synthesis full of implications for many disciplines.
