Phylyp that translated this boke in to latyn was a chylde of Parys, & was a veray wyse interpretour & understander of languages, & he sayd thus, `I have not knowen nor seen tyme that the phylosophers have holpen, or have ben acustomed to helpe or to make all werkes or all secretes but that I have sought, nor have knowen by no man by whome I knewe that he had knowlegyng of the scryptures of Phylosophers; but I have vysited him unto the tyme that I came to the knowlege of councell, the which was Estulapideus, & a man solytary & of grete abstynence, and veray wyse in phylosophy, to whom I meked me dylynently, requyrynge hym hat he wolde shewe to me the scryptures of the knowlege of the sonne, the whiche he gave unto me, with a ryght good wyll: And surely I founde as moche as I desyred, & all that I had ben about a hole yere, & wherfore I had longe tyme travayled. And I thus havynge my desyre retorned home with grete ioye, yeldyng thankes to god my creatour.
And than at the request of the moost noble kynge with grete study & labour I translated this boke out of Greke language in to Caldees tongue & syth in to the speche of Araby. The which boke the mooste wyse man Arystotle made, whiche andwered alwayes to all the requestes of kynge Alexandre, as more playnly appereth in this present boke.'