Page numbers from: Les Atours Precieux

P36
The door of Ka'ba is 6 cubits (8) high 10 inches. It has two doors, each of them one cubit 18 inches wide. It is made of teak wood and has a thickness of 3 inches. When the leaves are closed the set measures 3 cubits and a half in width. Each door is equipped with ebony wood sleepers.
P91
Whoever arrives in the land of the Zendjs catches scabies (1).
P92
As to the sea of Hind, she stretches from west to east, or from the confines of Habash to the confines of Hind, being 8000 miles by 2700 miles; this sea passes by the island of equal night and day at 1900 miles. Near the Abyssinian coast a gulf detaches in the direction of Berbera. Hence its name, Berbera Gulf, about 500 miles long and at its mouth 100 miles long.
P96
In the eastern Indian Sea the inhabited parts are India, Khmer, Zandj, Nadj, and the different people that are part of the Indian people.. ..
About the Indian sea; when the navigator gets into the sea at the gulf of Aden, the first land which he meets is the island of Barbar (Jazira Barbar) which is inhabited by a race of Zandj who are neighbors to the countries of the blacks. It is in that direction that are the lands of Zandjs and Djawaga (2), as well as all the people that we have talked about, and also others.. ..
P97
He who wants to go to the land of China (as well as to Zandj) cuts the east of the Indian sea (to go to China) and goes around it till arriving in its western part at the place of the Zandj land that one wants to go to. The one who wants to go to Djawaga (1) goes towards the east till reaching Kalah (3) and from there the land of Djawaga (2). Only take this road because passing by Djawaga (2) to go to Zandj you have to go through the sea of the dead where the daylight only appears for six hours a day. It is to avoid that that you take to the east in the Indian sea till Kalah (3), then towards the west of that sea till arriving in the country of the Zandjs.
P100
The Nile of Egypt has its source in the Baban (4) Mountains, flows into two lakes behind the equator, travels through Nubia and downstream of Fustat (5) is divided into several branches ....
P110
The two lakes who give birth to the Nile are part of the torrid regions, as well as the sea of the Zendjs, in which not a single animal can live, because of the high temperature and the density of the water. Really when the sun strikes that sea, it sucks out the sweet water by its heat and so the water becomes heavy and salty………
P111
And really, we find there animals of an extraordinary structure, like the elephants, or also the beasts who have horns on top of the nose, birds so big that it is impossible to imagine bigger ones. A merchant has brought from the two seas found behind the land of Kousaniens (6), that is the sea of the Zendjs, an egg that resembles the ones of ostriches. Except that we have never seen south of the equator any bird like that , and no author has ever mentioned it. One has never seen there a single elephant or rhinoceros.
P112
…. behind the equator, on the small distance traders have traveled, the aborigines (6) of this southern region are blacker, their hair is more frizzy and their features are much uglier than are the inhabitants of the same latitude to the north .
P113

The Negroes and Abyssinians live in areas in front of which are the signs of the Zodiac located between the tropics of Aries (9) and Cancer (4). But the sun, as it descends as in its ascending course, when it is in this space and it is in the middle of the sky, is exactly at their zenith. Their climate is hot and burning, heat and drought dominate. As a result, they contract a black color and their hair is frizzy (their body is dry and lean, and their temperament is warm.) The same is true of animals and plants. The dominant feature of their character is brutality and violence.

(1)Scabies in the land of Zanj is found in: Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan 869,  Ibn Khordadbeh 886, al Hamadhani 903, Ibn Rosteh 903, Ibn al-Fakih Tha'alibi 1038, Al-Raghib al-Isfahani 1109, Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi 1160, Ali ibn Zaid al Baihaqi 1170, Jakut al Hamawi 1220, Al-Qazwini Atar al Bilad 1283, Rukneddin Ahmed 1420 and many others.

(2) Djawaga: Zabaj (Sumatra)

(3) Kalah: very important harbour in Malaysia in those days.

(4) Baban Mountains: He is the only author to say so. Traditionally the Nile is said to have its source in the Mountains of the Moon.

(5) Fustat: now part of Cairo.

(6) Kousaniens: Kushites: ancient people of Sudan.

(7) the aborigines of this southern region : Is this a description of the population of Southern Africa before the Bantu expansion?

(8) cubits: Distance from fingers to elbow (45cm).

(9) Aries: is one of the constellations located in the Northern celestial hemisphere. The name Aries is Latin for ram.

(10) Cancer: in the Northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for crab.

Taken from: masaha.org/category/44  الأعلاق النفيسة ويليه كتاب البلدان‏ by أحمد بن عمر ابن رستة

He said, and after the dark (amber), the Zinj amber, which is the one that comes from Zinj to Aden, which is a white amber, and after it is Slahti amber, which is differentiated and is the finest, blue-creamy, much-fatty, and it is the one that is used as the strongest, and after the Slahti is the al-Qali amber, which is a light-hearted good for the wind (perfuming the air) and there is dryness in it and it is easy. Al-Slahti is suitable as the strongest or for the high (for boiling) and the purification is done only when necessary and it is good for the agglomerates and calcifiers. And after it comes the Zinj brought from the shores of the Zinj, and it is similar to the Indian and approximates it, and Tamimi (1) mentioned them in 'The Bosom of the Bride', where he puts the Zinji after the Shihri (=Shir) and the Zinji is also mentioned after the Indian, he said, and the one that is brought from India is called Karak Balus, it is attributed to people from India who bring it known as Karak Palos, they bring it to near Amman, and the owners of the boats buy it from them, he said. As for the Moroccan amber, without all of these types, it is brought from the Andalus Sea, so merchants carry it to Egypt, and it is similar in color to the desert amber, and it may be mistaken for it, .... and Ahmed bin Abi Yaqoub said to me, a group of scholars told me that the amber from the mountains that sprout in the sea are of different colors, it is uprooted by the winds and the severity of the sea turbulence in the severe winters, so it hardly found in the summer.

Note: His account on ambergris: The earliest source in which this information is found is Ibn Masawaih 857, others who repeated it are: Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi d897, Ibn Rosteh 903, al Masudi 916, Ibn Serapion 950, al Tamimi 980, Abu al Mutahhar al Azdi 1010; Ibn Butlan 1066; Ibn al-Wafid 1074; Nuwayri 1333; Musa Ud-Damiri 1405; Al Qalqashandi 1418. Off course much was added and discarded on the way. The most extensive article on ambergris is from Musa Ud-Damiri 1405.

(1) Tamimi book however is from 980AD.