The inscription can be translated, 'this building (imarah) was built at the order of the Sultan, the Greatest, Abu'l Muzaffar Sultan Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, may God perpetuate his kingship, by Nusrat al-Din Muhammad in the year 860' (1455-6 AD).

There are two other published tiles similar to this example, each with a central arch of slightly differing design, one in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, (Watson pl.129, p.159 and Timur no.113b, pp.212 and 352), the other in the Berlin Museum (Watson, p.197, no.133). A further example is in a private collection. All have the complete inscription around the border.

The complete inscription originally also existed in much larger format, written along a series of frieze tiles. Two of these are in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Timur, no.113a, p.213), while two more are in a private Swiss collection (Treasures, no.239, p.237). A further three are in another private collection.

Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles 1989.
Treasures of Islam, Geneva exhibition catalogue, London 1985
Watson, O.: Persian Lustre Ware, London 1985