Garudapurana 1.72

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa — [Chapter] 72
Sūta said:
Right there, in the region where young lavalī flowers and sprouts are plucked by the tender fingertips of Siṃhala maidens,
fell the demon's pair of exceedingly lovely eyes, possessing the radiance of blooming lotuses.

From that cause, the extensive shore-land of the ocean, having the lustre of waves of twofold splendour
and bordered by fringes of blooming ketaka groves, shines forth, possessing dense sapphire gemstones.

There, gems resembling the hue of blue lotuses, Balarāma's garment, a sword, a bee, Śārṅga-bearer's body, the brown mark on Hara's throat,
and fresh flowers of the girikarṇikā plant, are produced.

Others possess the brilliance of the clear waters of the ocean, others resemble [the necks of] peacocks,
some have the lustre of bubbles produced in indigo juice, and some have the lustre of the neck of an impassioned cuckoo.

Possessing a uniform nature and shining with clearly distinct beauty of colour,
sapphires of great virtue are produced there.

Some are accompanied by clay, stone, cavities, gravel, and flaws of internal fracture,
and spoiled by mica flakes, clouds, and defects of colour.

Abundant gems are indeed born right there;
the wise whose intellects are enlightened by the treatises praise them.

Whatever virtues are observed in wearing a ruby gemstone,
a human being obtains those very same from wearing a sapphire.

And just as there is a threefold classification of rubies,
it should be observed without difference among sapphires as well.

And by whatever tests a ruby is tested,
those very same tests are observed for the sapphire gemstone as well.

To whatever extent a ruby withstands fire when put to use,
a sapphire gemstone can withstand a far greater [extent] than that.

Even so, not for the purpose of testing, nor for the increase of qualities,
should any gem be placed in fire in any way whatsoever.

If the measure of fire is not properly known and it is spoiled by the defect of burning,
it brings ruin to the owner, to the maker, and likewise to the commissioner.

Glass, blue water lily, karavīra, quartz, and so forth, along with cat's-eye,
are stated here by the wise to be false substitutes resembling the sapphire gemstone.

The heaviness and hardness of these should always be known
as increasing successively in order, beginning particularly from glass.

Just as a certain sapphire bears a coppery hue,
so both the karavīra and utpala gems are to be observed as coppery.

That in whose centre the brilliance of a rainbow shines amidst the blue
they call an indranīla, exceedingly precious and rare on earth.

That which, placed in milk a hundred times its quantity, makes it all turn blue
because of the abundance of its colour, is called a mahānīla.

Whatever is the price of an excellent ruby weighing a māṣa,
that is the price of an excellent sapphire weighed against a suvarṇa.

Thus ends the seventy-second chapter, named 'The Examination of Sapphires', in the Ācārakāṇḍa of the first section called the Pūrvakhaṇḍa of the glorious and great Garuḍa Purāṇa.