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by ogogmad 336 days ago
It follows from matrices of the form [[a, (-n)b], [b, a]] being closed under multiplication, and taking determinants.

In more advanced language: For R a commutative ring (like say, the integers) the following function f is a ring homomorphism

  f:R[√(-n)] -> M_2(R),
  f(a + b√(-n)) = [[a, (-n)b], [b, a]]
Now take determinants.