The table format is used in the medieval Arabic manuscript to display data in texts of geography, medicine, astronomy, astrology. Calendar tables constitute a specific category to which the table of madbal ('entry') or 'alamat ('codes') belongs. This type of table is used to determine which day of the week starts any month of any Arabic year. The present article analyzes the context of the table of madbal or 'alamat preserved in the Risala kafiyat al-sayb fi-l-'amal bi-l-gayb (Compendium on the Use of the Sine Quadrant) by the qadi al-qudat al-maliki 'Izz al-Din b. Mas'ud (Cairo, 795/1392). We conclude that this kind of expression of contents was maintained throughout the centuries by textual tradition, since this type of table is not strictly necessary to convert dates from one calendar to another.