What is the fourth occult science, Qiyas?

Qiyas is a "fourth" occult science introduced in the third edition supplement Al-Mugawir. I put "fourth" in quotes because that appellation doesn't count the Selenim's occult sciences or other so-called "fourth sciences" practiced by the Exiles. So far it hasn't been officially converted to fifth edition, along with 99% of the content from past editions that aren't the rules for the three Nephilim occult sciences, so I can only refer to third edition for details.

Qiyas relies on the practitioner's or Qiyasim's Solar-Ka, so it may only be practiced by those who have awakened and integrated their Solar-Ka. This includes Ar-KaIm and initiated humans by default, but Nephilim and Selenim need to jump through further hoops before they can learn and practice it. This is done by becoming an Apprentice in any Quest that awakens one's Solar-Ka or being part of a splat that does so at character creation.

Qiyas operates similarly to Sorcery in that it relies on the analogy between Ka and worldly phenomena (the name literally translates to such), but instead of operating on the elemental associations it operates on archetypes from humanity's collective unconscious: dog, orchid, bee, sage, etc. For example, by invoking the Bee the Qiyasim may gain or grant archetypal qualities of the Bee such as more efficient working or coordination. And so on and so forth.

Curiously, the supplement Al-Mugawir notes that The Sun Arcanum considers the Quest for Qiyas to be an abomination and perversion rather than an exploration of the Golden Path. I'm really surprised by this. Although the Quest for the Golden Path was never published in third edition due to being cut short, the errata for Al-Mugawir specifies that the two are intended to be different but would synergize if pursued by the same quester: The Quest for the Golden Path would allow the Nephilim to retain Solar-Ka from past incarnations rather than losing it.

In the US version, the Mithradites were founded by a Sun Initiate for the purpose of cultivating Solar-Ka in mortals (and have invented Solar-Ka Techniques which do interesting things) so it would make sense for both the Mithradites and The Sun to be very interested in Qiyas. I'll have to work on that when I do writeups for the Arcane Quests...

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