Inscription: Three separate Arabic texts from [yaḥyā Ibn] Mu‘ādh al-Rāzī, Ḥātam al-’Aṣamm and Luqmān the wise in naskhi script:
قال معاذ الرازي رحمه الله یا معاشر الصدیقین جَوّعوا انفسکم لولیمة الفردوس فإن شهوة الطعام علی قدر تجویع الأنفس في الدنیا و قِیل لحاتم الاصم بم رُزقت الحکمة قال بخلو البطن و سخاء النفس و سهر اللیل و قال لقمان الحکیم لإبنه إذا إمتلأت المعدة نامت ا[لفکـ]ـر[ة] و خرست الحکمة و قعدت الاعضاء عن العبادة
Mu‘ādh al-Rāzī may God have mercy on him, said: O’ you all of thrusters, starve yourselves for the banquet in paradise because the delight of food is as making yourselves hungry at vale and it says to Ḥātam al-’Aṣamm, with what you given the wisdom, he says by making stomach empty and be generous and waking of nights and Luqmān the wisdom said to his, if the stomach be full the thought slept and the wisdom be mute and the parts of body stopped praying.
(The first and third text appear in: Abū Ḥāmid Moḥmmad al-Ghazzālī, ᾽Iḥyā᾽u ʻUlūm al-Dīn, 5 vols., al-Ḥalabī wa shurakāh publications, Cairo, 1968,, and Abū Ḥayyān al- al-Tawḥīdī, al-᾽Imāta‘ wa al-Muanasa, ed., Aḥmad al-Ṭawīlī, dār Bū Salāma publication, Tunis, 1982, Night 33).
(A.Ghouchani, 2011)

- Inscribed: [Yahya ibn] Mu adh ar Razi (d. 871) may God be merciful to him, said: "O you assemblies of very faithful people, keep yourselves hungry so that (you may attain) the banquet of Paradise, for the greed for food corresponds to the amount of keeping yourselves hungry in this world.
Hakim al-Asamm (d. 834) was adressed: "By what did you calm down (?) the darkness?" He said: "By keeping my stomach empty and being generous and staying awake at night." Loqman the Wise said: "When the stomach is full, the....sleeps, and the wisdom becomes dumb, and the limbs (become too lazy?) for worship."
This is a very interesting collection of Sufi sayings pertaining to asceticism, probably taken from a treatise on the behaviour of the aspirants to the mystical path
(A.M. Schimmel, 20 September 1985)

-Inscribed in Arabic:
He was staying up one night and had eaten a lot. His stomach being full, he became sleepy and tongue-tied and his limbs feeble for prayer. He said: The refuge of the needy is in the clemency of God and in the society of honest men. Let your soul hunger that you may attain Paradise! Verily, the passion for nourishment beyond measure starves the soul in this world, and with immoderation brings it to a bad end and to misery. The Prophet said: Let your stomach be empty and your soul generous.
(Unknown source)

Edward C. Moore (American), New York (until d. 1891; bequeathed to MMA)

Some Inscriptions on Early Persian and Syrian Pottery, MMA Bulletin, 19 (1924). p. 73, ill. fig. 2 (b/w).

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, Suzanne G. Valenstein, and Julia Meech-Pekarik. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. vol. 12. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1977. no. 260, ill. (b/w).

Schimmel, Annemarie. "Islamic Calligraphy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., vol. 50, no. 1 (Summer 1992). pp. 28, 30, ill. fig. 36b (color).