To my worthily honour'd William Backhouse Esquire Upon his adopting of me to be his Son.

Excerpted from: "Some Spiritual Alchemies of Seventeenth-Century England"
Robert M. Schuler. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 41, No. 2

Ashmole records in his notebook a horoscope for 12:30 p.m., April 3, 1651, "the time when Mr. Bakus [Backhouse, author of The Magistry, which Ashmole published in Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum] made me his son."

From this blest Minute I'le begin to date
My Yeares & Happines; (since you create
What wise Philosophers call Lyfe;) & vow
I ne're perceived what Being was till now.
See how the power of your Adoption can
Transmute imperfect Nature to be Man:
Nay, with one Word may yet refine it more,
Then all ye best digested Indian Oare.
Your Son! 'Tis soe! for I begin to finde,
Your Auncestors large Thoughts grow in my Minde:
I feele that noble Blood spring in my Heart,
Which does intytle me to some small parte
Of grande sire Hermes wealth; & hope to haue
Interest in all the Legacies he gave,
To his Successiue children; from whome too,
I must derive what is confer'd by you.
To prove each mie Descent, I neede not see,
A byast Herrald for my Pedigree;
That I'me true bred, question it he that dare,
If these my Aeglete Eyes on th' Sun can stare.
Or cause a ☿ in Crest I hold
Since my crude Mercury's transmute to Gold.
Ile vouch my Fate for Honor, Witt, Descent,
And all, which to th' Hermetick Tribe is lent.
Then be you blest my Starrs, who gaue to me
So blest a tyme for this Nativity.
That plac'd the golden Lyon in the East
When Sol within the Ram, the Nynth possest,
As if their Influence meant to ope the way,
To make Night Misteries shine cleere as Day.
Hast yee some good direction that shall lead
My Fathers hand with's Blessing to my Head
And leave it there. His leaves of Hermes Tree
To deck the naked Ash bequeath to me;
His legacy of Eyes to'th blinde Mole spare
And (though a younger Son) make me his Heire.

[on May 13, 1653] "My father Backhouse lying sick in Fleetstreete over against St: Dunstans Church, & not knowing whether he should live or dye, about eleven a clock, told me in Silables the true matter of the Philosophers Stone: which he bequeathed to me as a Legacy."

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Schuler goes on to note: "also this riddle, in which Ashmole may have hidden the "Silables" told him by Backhouse:

Of one part of mans Frame, Six letters make ye Name,
One P: add unto them, Then change S: into M:
This done you do uncage, The Subject of ye Sage"

The original of this poem is French, from Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement's "Traittez de l’harmonie et constitution generalle du vray sel [PDF]":

AU LECTEUR.
Sur la figure de l’Esprit général du monde
Il est une partie dans I'homme
Dont le nom six lettres consomme.
Si tu y vas un P adjoiutant
Puis l'S en M permutant
Tu trouveras sans nuls ambages
Le vray nom du subjet des Sages.

A plausible solution in Latin is LUMBUS (loins) equaling PLUMBUM (lead)