The Latin translation from 1552

Ibn Serapion; Liber Serapionis De Simplici medicina
( Book of natural simple Medicins.) Syrian-Nestorian author(950)
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Taken from: Ioannis Serapionis De simplicium medicamentorum historia libri septem By Yuhanna Ibn Serapion, Galen

 

Neregil (palmtree-oil and nuts); the fruit of a palm tree that grows on the islands and coast of Ami and of the Zing and …. Sarandib (Sri-Lanka).

 

Amber in the sea; it is said wrongly that it comes out of the ground; it springs forth in ferocious storms and is ejected on the seashore of the Zing region. (1)

 

And (the amber) that is devoured by the great fish, which is called Azel, is killed by it, and when the men from Zing they see the dead, who swims in the sea waters of the sea, they cast upon him ropes with an iron hook, and take him from the sea, and draw him (to the shore), and extract ambra out of his belly, and the amber is not good, especially that found in the stomach, …………..

(1) 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).