Miners say by way of similitude that a jewel is like a king whose fame
for generosity spreads to different countries and is the repository of the
hopes of mankind in that people traverse barren tracts into quest, where
even the guides give up all hope. The example of an excavated mountain
is like that of men entering a populated city having trudged all the way
through arid, deserted tracts, They are pleased when they reach a
populated place. Similarly, the sight of the white stone (hajar abyad) is
pleasing to the miners, as it is the bearer of good tidings. When the
searcher advances from one populated place to another, he is like the
miner who has finally reached through sharistah, the non-fragile stone.
The petitioner, the asker, the searcher has reached the fortress of the
country he had sought.
The ruby is found encapsulated in a receptacle, that is to say, the receptacle is a kind of sheath which is like beryl. This sheath or receptacle
and what is enclosed within it is known as the maghal. These receptacles
range in size from that of a nut to a melon. Miners say they have not encountered receptacles weighing more than three rath.
The stone comes out when the sheath is taken off. Usually, there is
only one stone and rarely does it happen that there are many stones, big
and small joined to each other like the grains of the pomegranate. Some
maghals consist of one cluster of several pieces of uniform size; these are
the size of grains. Sometimes the stones are sheathless as well, and their
colours vary from each other according to the mine. In some mines thev
are white, in others red, and in still others pure red, as in the Abu al'Abbas mine. The rubies mined from this are very red in colour. The
stones of Rahmanian mine are the most inferior. The best stones are
yielded by the Nayazki mine. They are transparent like the bahraman
'usfur variety. At present the price of a stone equivalent in weight to
one dirham is ten Harawi dinars. If a piece weighs from 20 to 100 dirhams, each dirham will fetch 20 — 30 dinars.
Jewellers to Yamin al-Dawlah 65 have claimed they have seen a
maghal weighing more than 1 00 dirhams. This statement corresponds to
the statement ascribed to a jeweller who obtained a maghal weighing a
manna and a half. When the sheath was stripped off, a superior quality
nayazki piece revealed itself. Afraid lest the stone be taken away from
him he cut the stone into pieces, and presented a piece to Yamin alDawlah. The weight of the piece was more than 90 dirhams. This is the
reason why it is often said that the price of a maghal is that the finder of
the stone can spend the rest of his life opulently.
I used to hear in earlier times that the ruby is sometimes found within its sheath in a liquid state. It petrifies on being aerated. I heard a
similar report from a person who had stayed in the vicinities (of ruby
mines) for several years but well informed people have denied this. Their
