I thought this thread had to do with the historical origin
of "north" and the historical origin of compasses.
It is misleading to quote Gilbert and cite the year 1600
(to the exclusion of other dates), because it is completely
nonresponsive to the question. If you're going to post
something that looks like it might be an answer to the
question but isn't, it would be helpful to warn the
readers.....
While Gilbert published many useful facts about magnets,
he did not discover "north". Similarly, he did not discover
the compass, and he could not have known its true history.
Gilbert is justly celebrated for introducing what might be
called modern scientific methods into the study of physical
science, but he was not in a position to apply such methods
to the study of history.
As a rule, for all X:
-- The history of X does not begin when some European guy
hears about X.
-- The history of X does not begin when some scientist
publishes a study of X.