in light it was found that it contained red, yellowish, and blue rubies.
Karkind and hark ahem are yellowish, pistachio-coloured, livine, and
Khuluqi. Some varieties of jusbiz are very red and some less red. But
the real colours of the gems appear only on heating and rubbing. A
friend of mine read to me an Indian book in which it had been said that
the lightest kind of the dust-coloured variety is that which is deep red
and is roundish. It should appear dark when seen in sunlight.
Sailors have described an incident regarding rubies. Once, while on
an excursion, they arrived near a mountain which overhung a bay, having
assumed an angular shape. The sea was dashing against the cliff, and the
boatmen went to the lower part of the incline. They were rowing by the
shore, being afraid of going deep into the sea. They shot their broad
arrows at the rubies suspended from the cliff, so that they may knock
them down. The pieces that fell into the shallows and the shore were
collected, while those that fell into the sea were left. They collected
several rubies in this way and sold them to jewellers.
Al-Kindi says: "There is an azure-coloured variety of aflah, 61 which
looks exactly like turquoise. People are liable to be deceived and buy it,
thinking it to be the aflah ruby. There is a dark-coloured variety of the
stone: it is of the most inferior kind." He further says: "All the varieties
are obtained from the mines of the hyacinth except aflah. It is brought
from Mandarun in Serandip". By Mandarun as if the port of Mandri
Patan is meant by him. If you examine the various kinds of rubies and
their colours, you will find them to be different in hierarchical order.
The smaller the pieces, the more expensive will they be. They occur
plentifully like the mineral stones.
We have mentioned gold, silver, and copper which are mined from
the same place. Their prices are dependent upon their use.
We have mentioned the different weights of rubies, even though they
may be having the same volume but different colours. These descriptions are based upon my personal experiment and assaying. Accordingly,
I found the ghubari ruby heavier than the red, apparently leading one to
believe that red ruby is inferior to it. The reason probably was that the
red ruby had no perforation and, because of its small size, water could
not enter it. It was, therefore, devoid of water and became aerated upon
the pattern of the lungs. The small hole in the ghubari did not allow the
air to enter and discharge the water, if the hole is so big as to admit
both air and water, it is the water which is discharged.
Our experiment was based upon water. I have written a monograph
upon the subject which further elaborates these points. This experiment
has proved that, if the ghubari kind weighs 100, the red ruby of the same
magnitude would be 97/8. In order to avoid fractions, let it be said that
the ratio to the weight of the red kind would be 770, while that of the
