Zebet albahar

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Zebet albhabar ara. spuma maris.

Zebet albhabar is the Arabic word for Latin spuma maris {"meerschaum"}

The form 'albhabar', 'bhabar' without the article, must be the result of a scribal confusion. In the usual manner of Simon's transliterations one would expect the Arabic "baħr" to be rendered as "bahar"; in the course of transmission a metathesis occurred resulting in habar, which is itself a common Arabic word meaning "news". Someone must have tried to draw attention to this mistake by writing a "b" over the initial "h" or perhaps by inserting an additional "b", e.g. alb/habar, and this "b" was then falsely incorporated into the word ending up as the nonsensical 'bhabar'. Cf. Wehr: ﺯﺑﺩﺍﻟﺒﺤﺭ zabad al-baħr “meerschaum” lit. “foam of the sea” Wehr: ﺯﺑﺩ zabad “foam, froth, dross” ﺑﺣﺭ baħr “sea, large river”

spuma maris lit. "foam of the sea"