quicksilver and tin

Ingredients

quicksilver, tin, gum arabic water

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Take quicksilver (mercury) and pour tin over it. Calcinate the mixture to extract its 'blackness'. Process the result into a fine powder. Mix this powder with gum arabic water. Write with this mixture on red or blue leaves. Once the writing has dried, polish it with onyx (p. 181).

Evidence

"take some quicksilver, pour some tin over it, and calcinate it with this; its blackness will be extracted from it; make it into a powder. Add gum arabic water to it and write with it what you wish."

Remarks

This recipe is intended to mimic silver writing on colored substrates. Tin is referred to by the code name 'Jupiter' in some manuscripts (p. 181). Variant MS B suggests processing the powder into zinc (tūtiyā), though the primary text specifies a powder from the calcined mercury-tin (p. 181).