Guido Bonatti states that the hyleg contains the imprint of life, the alcochoden contains the basis. [13] This couple resembled a human one, presented as celestial forefathers, is also understood as a pair of opposites. In the commentary on the nativity of Iskandar al-Sultan, the
governor of Fars from 1409 to 1414, al-Kasi states that al-hilaj corresponds to the body and al-kadhudah to the soul. [14] That which corresponds to the body is the source of life, and so hilaj was translated in this way in the Persian dictionary Burhan-i-Qati‘ by M.H. ibn Halaf al-Tabrizi in the middle of the 17th century. [15]

13. Tractatus astronomie, Auguste 1491, fol.BB4v: ‘Ylez nam significat radicem vite: alcocoden vero numerum annorum eius, quoniam status vite accipitur abylez, datio vero annorum accipitur ab alcocoden; sed tamen neuter illorum sufficit ad dandum vitam nato sine altero, sicut enim vir solus non sufficit ad generandum sic nec mulier sola sufficit ad concipiendum seu gignendum: unus enim sine alio gignere non potest: ylez enim dat vitam formaliter, alcocoden dateam effective’.

14. L.P. Elwell-Sutton, ‘A Royal Timurid Nativity Book’, in Logos Islamikos. Studia Islamica in Honorem Georgii Michaelis Wockens, ed. by R.M. Savory and D.A. Agis, Toronto, 1984, p128. This nativity was drawn up in his 27th year by Mahmud ibn Yahya ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ‘Imad al-munajjim al-Kasi, who is otherwise unknown.

15. Cf. Enzyklopaedie des Islam II, Leiden-Leipzig 1927, pp.324-325 (L. Massignon); cf. I.A. Vullers, Lexicon Persico-latinum, I-II, Bonn 1855-1864, s.v. haylaj.