22. Surah Al-Rahman, LV: 22-23.
23. Surah Al-Nahl, XVI: 14.
24. Surah Al-Rahman. LV: 58.
25. Surah Al-Ma'idah, V: 6.
26. Surah Al-Mudaththir, LXXIV: 5.
27. A festival of the pre-Islamic Arabia.
28. That is, Sultan of Ghaznah.
29. The allusion is to Surah XLIV — Al-Dukhan (Smoke), v. 10.
30. The reference is to Surah XVIII - Al-Kahf (The Cave).
31. Surah Al-Nisa', IV: 119.
32. Surah Yusuf, XII: 76.
33. Surah Al-Rahman, LV: 58.
34. Hurf is the cress plant. It is different from mandrake. Possibly there has been
some lexicographic change during the millenium that has elapsed.
35. That is, 12,240 grains troy.
36. One daniq = 0.55 g.
37. That is, 1.5625 g.
38. This would be the dragon's blood.
39. That is Ptolemy, the author of the Almagest.
40. Qirmiz (kermes) is an insect produced upon the kermes-oak and employed in the
red dye.
41. QasTdah - Ode.
42. That is, Phaseolus radiatus Linn.
43. The pea.
44. This would be the kulthi of today — Dolichos biflorus Linn.
45. The reference is obviously to the East Indies.
46. The Patronym should have been ThaqafT.
47. The text has «*##■» : correction is from 'Al-Beruni's India'.
48. A weight of two grains of barley or twenty-fourth part of a dram.
49. That is 0.55 g.
50. That is, one who deceives in the way of the wolf.
51. The meaning of the verse thus becomes: "My verses glittered upon thy door, as
the jewels glittered upon Khalisah."
52. The Jabal ring was in the treasury of the Abbasid Caliphs till the reign of AlMuqtadir bi-Allah. It then passed into the hands of the Buwayhids, from whom it
was taken by Tughrul Bak the Suljuq. He gave it to the daughter of Al-Qasim as
dowry in A.H. 451. Before this it belonged to Abu Nasr Ahmad bin Marwan the
Kurd, whose descendants were from the family of Malik Mansur bin Abl Tahir
Buwayhid. (Al-Muntazim of Ibn al-Jawzi).
53. The incident can be intelligible only if we take Abu al-'Abbas to be the patronym
of Fadlbin RabI'.
54. That is 9 lbs.
55. That is, 1,350 grams.
56. The original Arabic is la aba laka, an expression of endearment among the Arabs.
57. That is, chariots.
58. One farsang equals 12,000 cubits.
59. Surah Al-Furqan, XXV: 72.
60. Surah Al-Furqan, XXV: 63.
61. Aflah means chapped.
62. A coarse blue gem said to prevent intoxication or to induce pleasant dreams.
63. A fruit resembling the colocynth.
64. The present-day Talandar (or Talandhar or Jalandhar).
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