Exposé of the Tricks of Those Who Work Knockout Drugs and Other Stupefacients from The Book of Charlatans by the Learned Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Jawbarī
Now listen here and I will tell you further of the worst poisons of the tribe of charlatans who call themselves the Banu Sasan.
This is their most prodigious trick and the classiest of sleeping pills—“Blue Cretan” henbane. To concoct the most effective
possible knockout drug, they take five dirhams by weight mature blue henbane, four dirhams black poppy seed, three dirhams
opium, four dirhams euphorbium, five dirhams black seed, six dirhams agarikon, four dirhams lettuce seed, two dirhams basil
seed, five dirhams mandrake apple, and two dirhams datura nut. All of this is pounded together, kneaded with leek juice, and
made into pills, which are then fumigated with blue sulfur; the pills can be made only after it has been crushed to a powder.
To drug a person, they give it to him in some food, drink, or halvah, and he falls asleep on the spot and has no idea of what’s
been done to him till he’s revived by the administration of vinegar via the nose or is given blue tinder to sniff, after which
he vomits up the drug. This is the most effective things of its kind I’ve come across. So wise up! Be mindful of what you
consume, especially at the hands of suspicious characters.