1) "I woke that day." Ink, draft paper.
2) "The mask thickened." Ink on verso of a typescript from the "Postcards" section.
3) "Outdoors. Uprooted." Pencil, draft paper.
4) "Here and there the scaffolding has invested." Ink, draft paper.
5) "Outdoors, uprooted." Pencil, draft paper.
6) "Uprooted Five turban crested stones." Ink, draft paper. Six sketches.
7) "In Saint Sophia I enjoyed my first." Pencil, draft paper. One sketch.
8) "THE THOUSAND AND SECOND NIGHT." Ink.
9) "5 The house of Heavenly Wisdom." Ink, pencil, draft paper. Two sketches. Numbered poetic feet.
10) "2. Hagia Sophia. The House of Heavenly Wisdom." Ink, draft paper.
11) "Outdoors: Uprooted, turban-crested stones." Ink, pencil.
12) "Outdoors, uprooted, turban-crested stones." Pencil, draft paper.
In some manuscripts, the second section of "1/ Rigor Vitae" is entitled "Hagia Sophia." The original Latin name for the edifice was Sancta Sophia. Sancta and Hagia both mean “holy.” Sophia is the biblical name (in Greek) for “wisdom.” Hagia Sophia, also called the Holy Wisdom of Christ in God, was built in sixth-century Constantinople. In Manuscript 9, Merrill notes the number of poetic feet per line.
Manuscript 6 contains Merrill's sketch of (presumably) Scheherazade.