. Later, a rice-based starch was used, obtained through straining boiled rice through a piece of clean linen, and collecting the starch-filled water beneath. In the Islamic world, solutions of rice, and wheat were the most popular form of sizing, with reference to their use in verse by Suzani Samarqandi (d. AH 562/ AD 1166-7), who compares the bright waterproof feathers of the stork with sized and burnished paper, 'He saw feathers of the stork as polished and glazed paper