Its conclusion reads: “Exegesis of Sūrat al-Tawbah.” It comprises 236 folios and has been restored; as a result of this restoration, some words have been lost at the beginning of Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, on pages 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14. It also contains marginal notes and annotations.

The third copy is numbered 3782 and comprises 208 folios. It begins with Sūrat al-Baqarah, Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, and Sūrat al-Nisāʾ. At the end of the manuscript, the following statement is written: “The end of the first volume of Maʿālim al-Tanzīl. Its copying was completed on Saturday, the fourteenth of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, in the year 746 AH, by the poorest of servants and the one most in need of his Lord’s pardon.”

The fourth copy is numbered 3627. It consists only of the first volume and comprises 298 folios. On folio 297 is written: “The first quarter was completed, by the praise and enabling grace of Allah. The copying of Maʿālim al-Tanzīl was completed, by the permission of Allah, the Majestic King, on Friday before noon, after twenty-two days of Rabīʿ al-Awwal had elapsed, in the year 1129 AH.”

In addition to these, there are many incomplete copies. We chose copy (A)—the Ẓāhiriyyah Library copy—as our base text because it was copied close to the author’s death, is complete, and contains some marginal notes and annotations. After Allah Most High’s help and enabling grace, we also relied on copy (B), which we placed second because of its clarity and completeness. Our reason for limiting ourselves to copies (A) and (B), and disregarding the others, was to avoid overcrowding the margins with textual variants that might cause the reader aversion and weariness, since they offer no benefit to the reader. Allah guides to the straight path.