melting of gold (ḥall al-ḏahab)

Ingredients

Egyptian gold leaves, bee honey, water, gum arabic

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Take a blue Chinese bowl and place ten leaves of Egyptian gold inside. Add half a dirham of bee honey and process until the mixture forms a single leaf and melts. The sweetness of the honey is then washed away with water. After the gold sinks and is filtered, a ḫarrūba measure of gum arabic moistened with water is added for writing (p. 174). After application and drying, it must be burnished for one hour using hematite or onyx (p. 175).

Evidence

"throw ten leaves of the finest quality Egyptian gold into it; pour half a dirham of bee honey onto this, gradually make everything into a single leaf, until it melts; then wash the sweetness of the honey from it with water... pour a ḫarrūba [dry measure] of gum arabic moistened with water onto it and write with it."

Remarks

This recipe specifically calls for 'the finest quality Egyptian gold' (p. 174). It is associated with Chapter 23, focusing on metallic ink preparations. Comparisons are made to other works like Fani and the 'Art of Penmanship' (p. 175).