1. Behold, the tools for writing are nine:
Take it from me as a teacher not obscure

2. Take from good water two dirhams' worth
Of gum take thirty dirhams in weight

3. And place it in a bowl and in the sun an hour
To dissolve, that water, mixed and starred

4. And take twenty dirhams of fine wheat flour
To be pounded in it, pounded fine

5. Of vitriol take three dirhams' weight
Lest the color turn dusty and dark

6. And take half a mithqal of white salt
And of saffron half a mithqal afterward

7. Add to it half a mithqal of sugar
A preparation of Egyptian and one dirham of smoke

8. And a little basil water to spread with it
And give it as much gum-water as that