Box

Rectangular alabaster chest that is arranged in body and lid. The body has a step-shaped edge to ensure the fixation of the lid.

The box has a carved lid on a rectangular surface, providing two flat surfaces that include two cartouches with inscriptions in flowery Kufic script. The inscription inside would speak of the craftsman who made the piece, named Nafid. The exterior inscription is a basmala used to begin chapters of the Koran, azolas, and used as an ornamental motif. Other motifs, made with trephine, decorate the sides of the lid, highlighting a hexapetal rosette that symbolizes a lotus flower with six petals seen in full open plan, and which is surrounded by a circle. Other motifs such as ataurique, cords and circles can be seen in the carving and trephine.

The body of the box presents a carving work with a succession of concentric circles in two sizes. The piece is reintegrated into the lagoon areas.

Inside the cover: mada min nafid - (It was finished by NAfid) [The central words mada min nafid. The first word comes from a root mdy, which means to bring to fruition, finish, conclude, fulfill, sign...; the second is the min particle, and the third can be a proper noun. On the outside of the tape in the name of God, the merciful, it is a part of the basmala, which would be missing the word al-rahim, the merciful, one of the ninety-nine names of Allah. Quranic surahs always begin with these words].

On the outside of the cover, Arabic: (In the name of God, the Gracious) [Part of a basmala, a ritual form with which the chapters of the Quran, the surahs, begin and which is frequently used as a motif ornamental].

It is missing the mobile handle, which would probably be made of another material (metal), of which the two holes in the upper part of the lid are preserved. The inscription on the outside is part of a basmala.

The hexapetal rosette is a motif from Roman culture, widely used by the Visigoths and which Islamic ideology adopted as a protective symbol. In East Asia the lotus symbolizes purity, life and is associated with water, hence it represents eternal life and its use protects against the evil eye that can result from not achieving eternal life, Paradise. The hexapetal flower is surrounded by a circle that gives it greater power of protection. The Andalusian world used it in various material supports as an apotropaic symbol, from ablution pools, amulets or funerary steles.

The circles of the body serve as a link with two fragments of a human figure found.