Over time early Islamic calligraphers grew more experimental with scripts, incorporating ornament to invigorate older styles. This tombstone is inscribed in a script known as foliated Kufic, in which half-palmettes, or leaflike designs, embellish the tops of letters. Beyond adding beauty, such decorative scripts are an important tool for dating objects, as is the case with the inscriptions on this tombstone, which are comparable on stylistic grounds with those on other date-bearing tombstones as well as ceramics and architecture from tenth-century Iran, all decorated with foliated Kufic. The inscription reads, "[In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. There is no God but] God. Muhammad is the Messenger of God, God bless him and grant him salvation. This is the grave of Mu'awi-yah ibn Salih, may God be merciful to him, grant him pardon, and whiten his face."