600: The Terminal Letter Sa (س)

The numeral 600 is the abjad value of the letter Sa (س), the fifteenth letter of the standard Arabic alphabet and the terminal member of the six “simple” letters (al‑ḥurūf al‑basīṭa). In the traditional Abjad order ( ا ب ج د ه و ز ح ط ي ك ل م ن س ع ف ص ق ر ش ت ث خ ذ ض ظ غ ), Sa occupies the twelfth position but is the last of the letters that have only one phonemic point; its numerical weight originates in the Hebrew–Aramaic Samekh (ס = 60) and is multiplied by ten in the Arabic extension to 600. Etymologically, the name Sa is an onomatopoeic reflection of sibilance—the “hissing” sound of the letter—and in Arabic morphology it serves as a marker of the causative and reflexive verbs (Form II and Form V patterns), indicating a turning or a doubled action.

Position on the Tree of Life

In the Liber 777 framework, 600 corresponds to the fifth Sephirah, Geburah (Severity, Strength, Judgment) on the Middle Pillar of the Tree of Life. This is the first severe Sephirah after the mercy of Chesed, and the number 600 here acts as a “terminal severity”—the letter that closes the simple series and inaugurates the complex, doubled letters. The value 600 is to the letter Sa what 500 (the value of Kaf ) was for Kef: a dramatic numeric leap that locks the letter into a sphere of harsh limitation and cleansing fire.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

While Liber 777 does not assign a planet directly to the numeral 600, the letter Sa itself has strong traditional links to Jupiter (al‑Mushtarī) in Arabic astrological magic. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, wisdom, and law—qualities that, when refracted through the severity of Geburah, become the “strict justice” that judges and breaks down old structures to allow new forms to arise. The 600 vibration is thus a crucible of Jovian authority turned critical: the letter’s sibilance echoes the ṣarf (change) of destiny, a swift and inexorable decree.

Historical Context

The Abjad numeration of Sa as 600 is a direct continuation of the Hebrew–Arabic numerical continuum. In Hebrew, the letter Samekh (ס) equals 60, and its name means “support” or “prop.” In Arabic, the letter shape of Sa (س) developed from the Nabataean Semkath, and its value was fixed at 600 by the 9th‑century grammarian al‑Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al‑Farāhīdī, who systematized the Arabic lexicon in the Kitāb al‑‘Ayn. The number 600 appears prominently in the Risāla fī ḥurūf al‑mu‘jama of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al‑Ṣafā), where it is associated with the 600,000 letters of the Qur’an (a symbolic total) and the 600 years of the cycle of Saturn in certain Ismā‘īlī cosmologies.

In the occult revival of the late 19th–early 20th century, the number 600 was adopted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and later by Aleister Crowley for his Liber 777. The value 600 appears as the terminal entry in the “Numeration of Arabic Alphabet” row (row CLXXXIV.), and it completes the sequence from 1 (Aleph) through 500 (Kaf) to the threshold of the thousands (Yesod = 1000). Crowley himself remarked in The Book of Thoth that the number 600 is “the number of the Sun in the synthesis of the Dragon,” though his published tables give the Sun as 600 only through the related value of Samekh on the Path of Sagittarius.

A unique textual witness is found in the Picatrix (Ghāyat al‑Ḥakīm, 11th century), where Chapter 4 of the first book describes the figure of the “Great Name” formed by the letters of the alphabet arranged in numerical squares. The number 600 (س) is placed in the square of “the Third Heaven,” associated with the planet Jupiter and the angel Sachiel (Şaqrā‘īl). The manuscript tradition notes that 600 is the sum of the letters of the Arabic word “al‑Qāḍī” (القاضي, “the Judge”), aligning exactly with the Geburic function of judgment.

In the Table of Liber 777

In Liber 777, the number 600 appears as the cell value at the intersection of Row CLXXXIV (Numeration of Arabic Alphabet) and Column 5 (the Sephirah Geburah). The preceding entries in the row are: 0 (Three zeros), 1 (Keter), 2 (Chokmah), 3 (Binah), 4 (Chesed = 500), 5 (Geburah = 600), 6 (Tiphereth = 700), 7 (Netzach = 800), 8 (Hod = 900), 9 (Yesod = 1000), and empty into Malkuth. The number 600 thus marks the precise point where the Abjad scale reaches the fifth sephirotic power, closing the five‑hundreds and opening the sequence of hundreds that culminates in the thousand of the lunar sphere.