1) this is a book in which i have told of the arabs doctrines in the science of stars their risings their places of setting their characteristics their forms the names of the moons mansions their seasons the difference between the right and left the times and seasons the rains and their times the differences in their names in the seasons the times of appearance to follow the places of rain and seek out pastures and the times of the presence of water and what the arabs deposited in their rhymes in the rising of each star of indications of the events at its rising and about the winds and their actions and determining their majesties and the times of their rising and about the sphere and the pole and the galaxy and the constellations and the eclipsing stars 1 and the sun and the moon and the stars and their famous ones 2 and guidance by them and about the clouds and their signs what they bring forth and what they leave behind and the lightning its deceit and its truth and the signs of the fertility and barrenness of the time and so on. n.
١) هذا كتاب أخبرت فيه بمذاهب العرب فى علم النجوم مطالعها، ومساقطها، وصفاتها، وصورها، وأسماء منازل القمر منها، وأنوائها، وفرق ما بين يمانيها وشاميها، والأزمنة وفصولها، والأمطار وأوقاتها، وأختلاف أسمائها فى الفصول، وأوقات التبدى لتتبع مساقط الغيث وارتياد الكلاء وأوقات حضور المياه، وما أودعته العرب أسجاعها فى طلوع كل نجم من الدلالات على الحوادث عند طلوعه، وعن الرياح وأفعالها، وتحديد مهابها، وأوقات بوارحها، وعن الفلك والقطب والمجرة والبروج والنجوم الخنس ١ والشمس والقمر، ودرارى الكواكب ومشاهيرها ٢ والاهتداء بها، وعن السحاب ومخايله ما طره ومخلفه، والبروق خلبها وصادقها، وأمارات خصب الزمان وجدوبته، إلى غير ذلك ن.