Avicenna (980-1037), Persian physician and philosopher. Here he is seen with the figure of a soaring eagle chained to an earthly toad, meant to depict the majesty of the alchemical arts. Avicenna's was born as Abu-Ali Al-Husain Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina, but is better known by his latinised name. Avicenna was an infant prodigy able to recite the entire Koran at the age of ten and was practising medicine before he was twenty. Basing much of his work on earlier Greek and Roman writers, he wrote medical treatises such as The Canon (Al Qanun) and the Book of Healing. His medical books were translated into Latin in the 12th century and were the basis of medicine in Europe until the time of the English physician William Harvey (1578-1657). Avicenna also wrote