red arsenic (realgar)

Ingredients

red arsenic (realgar), ḥibr, yellow arsenic, midād, gum

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The recipe instructs to grind red arsenic (realgar) finely. One then pours a low-quality ink (ḥibr) onto it. Alternatively, one can take red arsenic and add yellow arsenic and carbon ink (midād). Both methods require the addition of gum after the primary mixing (p. 174). A variant suggests using red vitriol instead of arsenic, mixed with minerals and gum water (p. 174).

Evidence

"Grind some red arsenic (realgar) finely, pour the closest thing to the most suitable/closest/lowest quality ink (ḥibr) that there is onto it; or take the red [arsenic], add the yellow [one] and the [carbon] ink (midād), and all this after the addition of gum."

Remarks

The text notes that colors are produced from each other through combination depending on the difference of the colors (p. 174). The variant in MS B explicitly mentions taking 'red [vitriol]' and mixing it with minerals and gum water (p. 174).