According to a story collected by the erudite Francesco Cancellieri in 1802, a pilgrim named "Stibeum" (from Latin: stibium, which means "antimony") was hosted in the villa for a night.

Legend held that the next morning he was seen to disappear forever through a door, but left behind a few flakes of gold, the fruits of a successful alchemical transmutation, and a mysterious paper full of puzzling symbols and equations, putatively describing the ingredients and process required.

A second legend holds that between 1678 and 1680, the same Giuseppe Francesco Borri along with Athanasius Kircher and Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed and built the gate for the marquis.

Similarly, the lower part of the emblem by von Mynsicht depicting a "centrum in trigono centri", was reproduced in a manuscript called the Geheime Figuren der Rosencreutzer (1785–88).

Around the circle at top: “The center is in the triangle of the center.” Also: “There are three marvels: God and man, mother and virgin, triune and one.” The Hebrew inscription, Ruach Elohim, means “Spirit of God.” Beneath it: “The Hesperius dragon guards the entrance of the magic garden, and, without Alcides, Jason would not have tasted the delights of Colchis.” There are six sigils on the jambs, each with its phrase.

A patron of the home, childbirth, and infants in ancient Egypt, Bes was also known in imperial Rome, where in pre-Christian age several people followed Egyptian cults.