Literary text: ENA 3960.5

Recto

1. In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate.
2. Recipe for making red ink
3. Take red mercury sulfide and gum arabic.
4. Recipe for making yellow ink
5. Take red orpiment and gum arabic.
6. Recipe for making green ink
7. Take yellow orpiment and indigo.
8. Recipe for making blue ink
9. Take white lead and lapis lazuli.
10. Grind all together to a fine powder, then mix in a vessel with [water and gum].
11. Another method for preparing red ink
12. This is also an excellent preparation.
13. Take eight mithqāls of white lead (asfīdāj al-raṣāṣ) and four mithqāls
14. of vitriol. Place them in a pot, seal it with clay, and put it
15. in the glassmakers’ furnace. When you remove it, grind it finely and pour over it a little gum solution,
16. write with it.
17. Recipe for making gold ink
18. Take one part of strong vinegar, one part of resin, and one part
19. of qalqant. Grind ṭalq (talc) and copper sulfate with honey; place all together in [a vessel]
20. and heat it until it is complete, then remove it from the alembic, and [use it as desired].

Left margin

1. Recipe for making a silvery paste
2. ]Take two dirhams of jade stone (called [____]), two dirhams of bitter almond, two dirhams of orpiment, and two dirhams of gold-colored leaf.
3. Combine all, then add half a measure (mithqāl) of mercury, forming it into a ball. Coat it with yellow clay mixed with the hair of a human, and cover the flask
4. before firing......[

Verso

1. Recipe for making ruby-colored ink
2. Take cinnabar of the second kind and boil it as previously described, then grind it to the texture of an ointment,
3. then mix it with crushed white gallnut and let it stand for an hour. Afterwards, beat it with dissolved gum
4. arabic and add lac, stirring
5. vigorously. Write with it—it will yield a fine ruby hue.
6. Recipe for gold-colored ink
7. Take six dirhams of alum and soak it in baqqam (sappanwood dye) for one day or night.
8. The next day, knead it with your finger in the same vessel, strain it, and add
9. one dirham of saffron. Its color will become like that of gold, even deeper in yellow.
10. Recipe for green ink
11. [Take] three dirhams of salt [and mix] with water until reduced
12. by one-eighth; add one dirham of orpiment and rub until its color turns
13. deep green, almost blackish.
14. Recipe for making ink from the anemone flower (poppy)
15. Take from the shaqqāʾiq al-nuʿmān—the variety called barsan, whose petals are red.
16. Take only its petals, boil them until their color is extracted, then remove from the fire
17. and strain thoroughly. Add two dirhams of stale water 
18. and one dirham of gum arabic. Write with it for it will produce a wondrous and remarkable ink.

19. ] blessings upon His Messenger, and praise be to God, the One truly deserving of all praise.