Silver or Golden Liyya

Ingredients

mica, tutty (tutiya), sharp wine vinegar, water of broad beans boiled in hot water, Arabic gum

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Take one rotl of good mica. Grind it and put it in a vessel that is not greasy. Pour ten dirhams of tutty (tutiya) over it. Pour enough sharp wine vinegar over it to submerge it by a finger's width. Place it in the hot sun for fifteen days. Then remove it from the sun and put it in a thick bag made of small-holed haircloth. Then rub it on a flat surface vigorously. Take the water of broad beans boiled in hot water. Squeeze it into the bag. Take what comes out of it and add ground Arabic gum to it. Write with it. It will come out the color of gold.

Remarks

This recipe can yield a gold or silver colored ink, depending on whether saffron is added. 'If you want it silver, use the mica without saffron and it will come out silver'. Tutty is described as 'A stone used as an eye-salve'.