In uel patlaaoac, in uel xopaleoac quetzalli. Inin tlatolli itechpa mitoaya: in uel tenonotza tlatoani , anozo pilli, anozo tecutlato = A very broad and very green quetzal plumage. This was said of the king, or noble, or a royal orator. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 160–161.
We also see "in patlaoac in quetzalli, in vel iaque, in xopaleoac" (a broad [feather], a precious feather, the well formed, the dark green).
(central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), chapter 33, 181.
ca omjtzonmomaqujlique in anemjuhquj in tlaҫotic, in maqujztic, in chalciuhtic in cuecueioca: auh in juhquj in quetzalli in xopaleoac, in patlaoac, in vel iaque = They have given thee the incomparable [words], like precious things, like bracelets, like precious green stones, resplendent like precious feathers, deep green, wide, perfect (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 216.