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layer upon layer.
There is a kind of abiyad variety which is totally white. Another is
that in which some other colour appears and which assumes the white colour on abrasion. Sometimes jewellers introduce different colours into the white kind having bored a hole into it. Put into the mouth, it feels heavy and cold. Nasr writes: "There are two kinds of abiyad variety: (i) the one that
is beryl-like, which in whiteness, clarity, and sheen is like the beryl; and (ii) the other kind, which does not have the characteristics of the former, is harder, and is, therefore, denoted by the masculine gender." The people of India describe a stone known as the liajar al-qamar
(the moonstone). They call it cliandr hand (chartdrakant); the word means the rays of the moon. This is not the stone mentioned by Yahya Nahwi in his refutation of Brucolis, saying that the whiteness shines from its surface, and this spot increases in size as the moon becomes larger until it becomes full. When the moon wanes, it also gets smaller, and when the moon comes out, it grows larger. The people of India believe that, if placed in the sumrah 63 fruit, water begins to drop from it. I believed this stone to be the beryl on relying Akhbar-aLSind (History of Sind) wherein it is mentioned that the King of that country presented Alexander a cup together with other gifts. They thought this cup got filed up with water by itself. I had thought that it might have been the self-same beryl. This could have been possible and some explanation can be advanced with regard to it. But it is not beyond belief that this could have been the moonstone which we have already described. White ruby is heavier than beryl. One of its characteristics is that: it
is cooling to the mouth. From this it seems that water gathers upon its surface just as the drops of water form upon metallic basins in which ice has been placed in summer, provided they are kept in a dark place. People think on such occasions that the water has trickled out from inside. The humid climate of India is especially conducive to this phenomenon. But the exudation of water is not brought about thereby, if these drops are collected, a little quantity of water can be obtained, and the weight of the basin remains constant; it does not diminish provided, it is kept tightly closed. Susurd in his book, "The Compendium and the Minutae" (Mujmal
wa Mufassal) describes this stone. He has used its water in therapy, and he has stated that its water is of use in fevers and exorcism of evil spirits. Among the people the general belief is that ruby is progressively
ghubari, white, yellowish, and so on, till it becomes red. The poet Ghada'iri says: It often happens that the state of pure ruby returns to red colour at
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