When a verse mentions pearls, the latter could carry two opposite implications. The following verse by Labid would clearly show that jumman signifies lu'lu and not pearls made out of silver.
It glows in darkness like the ocean pearl bereft of its thread.
The maternal uncle of 'A'sha, Musayyab, says:
Like the ocean pearl brought out by the diver from
the middle of the ocean.
The genitive case in relation to the ocean clearly shows that lu'lu is from
the sea, not artificial. Jamil bin Mu'mar al-'Adhari says:
White, and anointed with fragrances, her breast decorated with jumman, jacynth and rows of pearls.
In this verse the causes of adornment are jacynth and pearls and those
small pearls that are like caesuras in verses and have been made out of
silver and threaded with white silk, ibn Ahmar says:
The rustling of the ornaments underneath her garments is like the
susurration of leaves in a storm. The jewels of jumman and jacynth
present the sight of the fires of the plane trees bedecking fragrant
hems.
This verse by Hudbah attests to jummans being artificial:
They have put on jewellery made in Madinah. The jummans are like
the walnuts from Duba having put on silken sheets.
Some lexicographers believe jumman to be the Arabic version of guman,
meaning belief, since the jewel creates suspicion in one's mind whether it
is lu'lu' or like it. This verse would show that jummans have been made
out of silver, but no such doubt arises about lu'lu'. It is jewels that are
like it that lead to doubt.
The earlier poet has brought out the word, durr, in the following distich rather elegantly:
My heart has been carried away by a slender-waisted damsel who has
put on a flexible band around her neck. She was like a pearl in her
beauty, a pearl that had been carried ashore by the sea.
But the meaning of the verse has one weak link. The object which
the sea throws out is the dead shell, and its pearl is not free from blemishes. As long as the oyster is alive, it sits within the shell and does not
collide with the waves which, otherwise, may wash it out. Masrur has
also come out with the same erroneous image.
Or she like that sheeny pearl which has smilingly stepped out of the
shell after it has been brought to the shore by the foamy sea.
Mansur al-Qadi says:
He is a youth who in his generosity is like a torrential rain. He is like
the sea which when in commotion brings about death, and, in tranquillity, throws up pearls.
Mansur, in the first distich, has not said anything which could be
