Born in the city of Málaga in al-Andalus (Muslim-controlled Spain) at the end of the twelfth century, Ibn al-Bayṭār learned botany from the Málagan botanist Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Nabātī with whom he started collecting plants in and around Spain.
Ibn al-Bayṭār used the name "snow of China" (in Arabic, thalj al-Ṣīn) to describe saltpetre while writing about gunpowder [REF].