3 ideas
The treatise presents Persian design as resting on a fixed set of basic ornamental modes, the haft asl or 'seven principles', such as islimi arabesque, khata'i floral scroll, and cloud-band. A painter first masters this finite repertoire, and invention then works by recombining and inflecting it rather than inventing from nothing.
The painter is instructed to build his own brushes, choosing the animal hair carefully and binding it into a quill. The reasoning is that the brush's fineness and spring set the limits of the line he can draw. Control over the final image therefore starts upstream, at tool fabrication, and cannot be fully delegated.
The painter's slow, repetitive preparatory labour, such as grinding and refining pigments and preparing surfaces, is framed as part of his ethical formation, not as drudgery before the real work. Patience, humility and care in these hidden stages are treated as the same virtues that make the visible picture excellent, so the painter's character and his technique are one training.