The upper description celebrates the 'Fourteen Protected Ones'. Below is a Persian quatrain followed by the patron's name, dervish Mardanshah b.Ghawasshah. The quatrain beginning with the address "O Shah" may be understood as referring to Ali, often so addressed, and known as Shah-e Mardan / Mardan-shah, 'The King of (Spiritual) Knights'; to the ruling King; or to the dervish himself. The last distich reads "Every fruit that has become sweet in the Bagh-e Falak ('the Garden of Heaven'), May it be the fruit in thy bowl at thy party". This shows the bowl to have been used for fruit. Numerous owners marks, including that of the famous calligrapher Abd ol-Baqi, who resided in a sufi khanqah in Baghdad, are engraved on the bowl.