In every tradition of Solomonic magic that has preserved its operative core, the names and invocations of spirits are paired with geometric structures that the tradition treats as equally essential. In the Arabic system, these structures are called awfaq (singular: wafq) — magic squares, grids of numbers arranged so that every row, column, and diagonal sums to the same value. The Sihr Muluk al-Jann, the 14th-to-16th-century manual of the seven jinn kings now available for the first time in English, pairs each of its seven kings with a specific wafq. The squares are not decorative. They are operational objects — the geometric key to each king’s domain, without which the adjuration is, according to the manuscript’s own logic, incomplete.
This is not numerological curiosity. This is how the manuscript says the operations are structured.
What a Magic Square Is — and What It Is Not
The term “magic square” in a modern context tends to conjure recreational mathematics: a puzzle in which numbers are arranged so that every line adds up to the same total. This is technically accurate but misses everything that matters about the wafq tradition.
A wafq in Arabic Solomonic practice is not a puzzle. It is a concentrator. The property that makes the square “magic” — the constant sum in every direction — is understood within the tradition as a material image of harmony, balance, and unified divine power flowing through a structured form. Every line of the square adds to the same number because, theologically, the divine power it embodies is the same divine power flowing through every direction. The square does not represent this unity; it instantiates it. Writing the square correctly, on the correct material, at the correct planetary hour, creates an object that participates in — rather than merely points toward — the power it encodes.
This is a significant distinction. The Latin magical tradition that eventually produced the Western grimoires retained magic squares as elements in certain talismans but largely stripped out the theological framework explaining why they worked. The Arabic wafq tradition embedded in texts like the Sihr Muluk al-Jann preserved that framework intact.
The result is that the awfaq in the jinn-king manuscripts are not illustrations. They are instruments.
The Lo Shu Square: Entry Point for the Entire System
The foundation of the seven-king wafq system is a 3×3 grid that will be familiar to anyone who has encountered the Lo Shu square of Chinese mathematics or the Saturn square of Western astrological talisman-making. The Sihr Muluk al-Jann preserves it explicitly.
In the section on dream operations (p. 34 of the JFP edition), the manuscript presents this grid:
The Magic Square for Dream Visions
The seal takes the form of a magic square. Write it and place it beneath your head when sleeping.
4 9 2 3 5 7 8 1 6
Every row, column, and diagonal of this grid sums to 15. The magic constant is 15. The center cell holds 5.
This specific arrangement — 4-9-2 across the top, 3-5-7 across the middle, 8-1-6 across the bottom — is one of the most ancient numerical structures in the documented history of human mathematics. It appears in Chinese sources under the name Lo Shu, where it is associated with a turtle emerging from a river carrying the pattern on its shell. It appears in Arab mathematical texts of the medieval period as the Saturn square, the 3×3 grid associated with the planet Saturn and used in Saturnine talismans. And it appears here, in a jinn-king operational manual, as the base form for dream-vision operations.
The universality of this particular square is not coincidental. It is the only possible arrangement of the numbers 1 through 9 in a 3×3 grid that produces a constant sum. There is exactly one way to do it (up to rotation and reflection). This uniqueness — the mathematical necessity of the arrangement — appears to have been part of its appeal across cultures: the square does not merely assert order, it demonstrates it.
In the Arabic tradition, the 3×3 Lo Shu is associated with Saturn (Zuhal) and with the heaviest, slowest planetary energy in the system. Its use for dream operations is consistent: dreams, in classical Arabic cosmology, are a form of communication from the unseen world, and Saturn governs hidden underground things, the dead, and the transmission of knowledge across the boundary of ordinary perception.
How Each King Gets Its Square: The Structural Logic
The seven jinn kings are associated with the seven classical planets, and the seven planets are associated with seven different sizes of magic square, each with its own magic constant.
The system is mathematically elegant. A 3×3 square uses numbers 1 through 9; a 4×4 square uses 1 through 16; a 5×5 uses 1 through 25; and so on. Each larger square has a higher magic constant and, within the tradition, a correspondingly greater complexity and power. The planet assignments in the Arabic tradition (which correspond broadly to those in medieval European and Indian magic, all drawing from the same Hellenistic source) run as follows:
- Saturn governs the 3×3 square (magic constant: 15)
- Jupiter governs the 4×4 square (magic constant: 34)
- Mars governs the 5×5 square (magic constant: 65)
- The Sun governs the 6×6 square (magic constant: 111)
- Venus governs the 7×7 square (magic constant: 175)
- Mercury governs the 8×8 square (magic constant: 260)
- The Moon governs the 9×9 square (magic constant: 369)
The Sihr Muluk al-Jann preserves the specific awfaq assigned to each of its seven kings according to this structure. A king associated with Mars — al-Ahmar, the Red King — works with the 5×5 Martian square, a 25-cell grid with a magic constant of 65. A king associated with Jupiter — Shamhurish — works with the 4×4 Jovian square. The mathematics determines the geometry; the geometry determines the talisman; the talisman keys the adjuration.
The manuscript’s section titled “The Magic Squares of Jibra’il, Peace Be Upon Him” (p. 94 of the JFP edition) presents this system with explicit angelic attribution — the squares are not merely mathematical but are understood as transmitted through the angel Gabriel, giving them a chain of authority running from the divine source through the angelic messenger to the human practitioner.
A King, a Square, an Adjuration: How the Triple Works
The Sihr Muluk al-Jann does not treat the kings, the squares, and the adjurations as separate categories. They form operational triples: the king is contacted through the square, and the contact is sealed with the adjuration. The section on the investiture operations (p. 19 of the JFP edition) makes the interdependence explicit:
The Investiture of the King: The Son of the Light
The investiture of the king, who is the son of the light. Write the following talisman with magnified script, in abundance of writing, and with full precision. Then command the king — meaning the king of the jinn — to appear in whatever form you wish, and make it work according to what you intend.
“Write the following talisman with magnified script” — the wafq must be written correctly, at the correct scale, with the correct precision, before the command is issued. The square precedes the adjuration. The geometry prepares the ground for the invocation.
This sequence — prepare the square, recite the adjuration, receive the king — is the operational logic that runs through the entire manuscript. The section on dream visions follows the same pattern: write the magic square, place it beneath your head, receive the vision. The section on dispatching a spiritual emissary follows the same pattern: write the talisman, fumigate it with the correct incense, place it in the book, receive the appearance.
The magic square is the precondition. The adjuration is the activation.
The Central Name: What Goes in the Middle
Every wafq in the jinn-king tradition has a center cell, and the center cell is not merely a number. In the talismanic application, the center cell holds — or is associated with — the central name of power for that operation. In the 3×3 Saturn square, the center cell holds 5: the median value, the number that balances all others, the mathematical center of the sequence 1 through 9.
In the full wafq tradition as developed by the Arabic scholars of the Buni lineage — the same lineage behind the Shams al-Anwar (Suns of Lights) text also available on Amazon from John Friend Publishing — explored in A Magic Square for Every Day of the Week — the assignment of divine names to specific cells of the magic square is an elaborately developed science. Each cell corresponds to a letter of the Arabic alphabet, and each letter to a divine name or quality. The magic constant of the square determines the number of letters, and the arrangement of the square determines their spatial relationships. The central name is the hub of this system: it governs the square, it anchors the operation, and it names the divine quality through which the king is being approached.
The section titled “The Fourth Name: The Greatest Name of God” (p. 106 of the JFP edition) and the following section on “The Science of the Seven Names and Their Angelic Servants” (p. 113) develop this framework directly. The Sihr Muluk al-Jann is not a simple recipe book; it preserves a coherent mathematical-theological system in which the geometry of the squares, the structure of the divine names, and the planetary hierarchy of the seven kings form a single integrated architecture.
The Reproduced Seals: What the JFP Edition Preserves
One of the distinctive features of the Sihr Muluk al-Jann as a manuscript is the density of its visual content. The manuscript preserves 85 images across its pages — talismanic seals, magic squares, numerical sequences, and the sigils of the jinn kings — and these images are reproduced in the JFP edition directly from the source.
The translator’s note at the front of the JFP edition specifies the editorial policy: “Talismanic seals and magic squares are reproduced as images from the source manuscript. Where the source is illegible, the translator has noted the lacuna rather than invent content.” This is a significant commitment. Many editions of occult manuscripts in any tradition have filled lacunae with reconstructions — some more, some less transparent about it. The JFP edition reproduces only what is actually in the manuscript and explicitly marks what is not.
This means that the awfaq in the JFP edition of the Sihr Muluk al-Jann are not reconstructions or redrawn versions. They are, to the degree that reproduction allows, the actual geometric-numerical keys as the manuscript tradition preserved them.
For anyone interested in the history of these objects — not just what they claim to do but what they actually look like, how they were drawn, what the manuscript hand looked like when a medieval Arabic practitioner prepared a talisman for a king of the jinn — this is the primary source.
Why the Awfaq Tradition Matters Beyond Jinn-Magic
The wafq tradition in Arabic Solomonic practice is not an isolated curiosity within a marginal genre. It is connected to the mainstream of Arabic mathematical and philosophical culture in ways that historians of science are still fully mapping.
The Arabic scholars who developed the theory and practice of magic squares were in many cases the same scholars — or students of the same schools — that produced the advances in algebra, combinatorics, and number theory for which the medieval Islamic world is rightly celebrated. Ahmad al-Buni (d. 1225 CE), whose work is the theoretical apex of the wafq tradition, was writing at the same moment and in the same intellectual culture as al-Sharaf al-Tusi (d. 1213 CE), who extended the algebra of al-Khwarizmi. The wafq was not separate from Arabic mathematics; it was an application of it, directed toward a different end.
This is not to collapse the distinction between mathematical research and talismanic practice. But it is to say that the magic squares in the Sihr Muluk al-Jann — a text whose summoning protocols are detailed in How to Summon the Seven Kings of Jinn — are not the products of an isolated superstition. They are products of a sophisticated numerical culture that understood what it was doing with these grids — and that applied that understanding to the problem of contacting the kings of the jinn.
The Wikipedia article on magic squares provides useful background on the mathematical history; the Arabic tradition’s specific development of the wafq as a talismanic instrument is one of the most interesting chapters in that history.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a wafq (magic square) in Arabic Solomonic magic?
A wafq is a grid of numbers arranged so every row, column, and diagonal sums to the same value. In Arabic Solomonic practice, the wafq is not a puzzle but a concentrator of divine power — the constant sum in every direction represents unified spiritual force flowing through a structured form, making it an operational instrument.
How are the 7 magic squares assigned to the 7 jinn kings?
Each jinn king is associated with a classical planet, and each planet governs a magic square of a specific size: Saturn rules the 3x3 square, Jupiter the 4x4, Mars the 5x5, the Sun the 6x6, Venus the 7x7, Mercury the 8x8, and the Moon the 9x9. The king’s square keys his adjuration and talisman.
What is the Lo Shu square’s role in Arabic jinn magic?
The Lo Shu square — the 3x3 grid where every line sums to 15 — is the foundation of the seven-king wafq system. In the Sihr Muluk al-Jann, it is associated with Saturn and used for dream-vision operations, reflecting Saturn’s governance over hidden knowledge and communication from the unseen world.
Where can I read the Sihr Muluk al-Jann in English?
The first English translation of Sihr Muluk al-Jann (The Complete Magic of the Jinn Kings) is published by John Friend Publishing on Amazon. It includes all seven kings, their awfaq, adjurations, 85 reproduced talismanic seals, and the supporting framework of divine names and planetary correspondences.
Read the Manuscript in English
The Complete Magic of the Jinn Kings (Sihr Muluk al-Jann) — all seven kings, their awfaq, their adjurations, their seals, and the supporting framework of divine names and planetary correspondences. First English translation. Available in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback, and in Kindle Unlimited.
Related JFP titles:
- Suns of Lights & Treasures of Secrets (Shams al-Anwar) — the foundational al-Buni-lineage text that provides the complete theoretical architecture of the wafq tradition, including the letter-science and divine-name systems underlying the jinn-king squares.
- The Tested Remedies of the Monks (Mujarrabat al-Ruhban) — a companion operational text covering the practical applications of talismanic and square-based operations across a wider range of contexts.
- The Book of Daniel: Astrological and Divinatory Manual — the complementary astrological framework within which the planetary timing of the seven-king operations is determined.
For the mathematical history of magic squares and their development in Arabic sources, see the Wikipedia article on magic squares. The scholarship on Ahmad al-Buni’s wafq tradition is addressed in Pierre Lory’s work on Islamic esotericism. The translator’s notes to the JFP edition of the Sihr Muluk al-Jann address the specific manuscript sources and dating.