Science and Alchemy
Science, as we know it, does not exist. The scientific method, the concept of inductive logic, standards of significance, and hypothesis testing by observation do not exist — at least not in any coherent form. Many different sources of knowledge are accepted as credible; e.g., if an observation contradicts the writings of ancient philosophers, the observation is in doubt, not the writings. The “science” of the time is really natural philosophy, and owes more to philosophy than it does to science.
Since so much knowledge is, to modern sensibilities, no more than hearsay, there is no hard-and-fast line between what modern people would view as scientific theory, superstition, moralism, mythology, and magic. Bestiaries are perfect examples (bestiaries are not yet the hugely popular fad in Europe that they will later become, but a few are still in circulation). A bestiary will contain a mix of truth (ants store grain for later use, each bee in a hive has a specific job, parrots can be taught to speak individual words), false information (beehives are ruled by an elected king, antelopes are too dangerous to approach, moles die if exposed to sunlight), legend (dragons are found in India and Ethiopia, the basilisk can kill a man with its glance), and moralistic allegory (pelicans kill their young, but ressurect them by spilling their own blood, to show how the blood of Christ gives life to Christians). These are all presented as indistinguisable from one another; they are all “knowledge.”
The Arab world has the closest thing to modern science. Alchemy, while based on false premises, still has provided great knowledge by experimentation. Alchemy has spread to Europe recently, but is very rare, and still very much a copy of Arab alchemy. It has not yet taken on the religious, mystical, and magical overtones it will later in the middle ages.