In recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals are the same. The 'order' of the magic square is the number of integers along one side (n), and the constant sum is called the 'magic constant'. If the array includes just the positive integers , the magic square is said to be 'normal'. Some authors take magic square to mean normal magic square.

Sharaf al-Din, Shihab al-Din, or Muḥyi al-Din Abu al-Abbas Aḥmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Qurashi al-Sufi, better known as Aḥmad al-Būnī al-Malki, was a medieval mathematician and Islamic philosopher and a well-known Sufi. Very little is known about him. His writings deal with 'Ilm al-huruf and topics relating to mathematics, siḥr (sorcery) and spirituality. Born in Buna in the Almohad Caliphate, al-Buni lived in Ayyubid Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time.