Folio 9a

The Moon's place is the lowest heaven. Its own colour tends towards black; it takes its light from the Sun.

In each sign of the zodiac it stays two days and a third of a day. In one month it goes round the whole sphere that the Sun goes round in a year.

It is the smallest of all the planets, and in speed and motion the fastest of them all; for this reason they call it Fath al-nujum(?).*1

It has twenty-eight stations, and each night it reaches one station. If the month is twenty-nine days, it is not seen on the twenty-eighth night; if thirty, it is not seen on the twenty-ninth night. On the night it is not seen it still crosses one station. After that the crescent appears opposite the Sun.*1

God Most High said: "And the Moon We have measured out in stations, until it returns like the old date-stalk" (Ya Sin 36:39). That is: by Our power and wisdom We appointed stations for the Moon; after it has gone round all the stations it returns like the old date-stalk and appears as a crescent.

The 'urjun is the stalk to which the date cluster is attached, and it is exactly like a crescent.

The Moon's size is one part of the Earth's thirty-nine and a quarter parts.

Much has been argued about the dark patch seen on its face; but no one's mind has found(?) the way (to it).*2

The side that faces the Sun always gives light. When the Moon moves away from the Sun on the eastern side and inclines towards the Earth, only the part that faces the Sun takes light, and the crescent appears. Then, as it gradually comes nearer, its light increases. When it has completed fourteen stations it turns back from there, and as it gradually grows distant its light wanes; in twenty-eight days it is again as distant as before and is hidden. God knows best.*3

And this is its picture.*4