It uses the chanson N'aray je jamais mieulx by Robert Morton as the source of its cantus firmus, and also contains unique visual and musical references to dice.
The latter is thought to be a reference to the popularity of gambling in the court of the Sforza family at Milan, where Josquin wrote it.
The early movements, up to the Sanctus, also feature illustrations of pairs of dice, which indicate the speed-ratio between the tenor cantus firmus and the other parts.
For example, in the Kyrie, the dice show a ratio of 2:1, and the note-lengths of the original chanson are doubled in order to fit with the other parts.
It is speculated that these ratios, and the specific numbers involved, may represent an imaginary "game" of dice, which goes through several drawn rounds until the Sanctus's roll of 5+1=6 ends the game in a sudden victory (a metaphor for the "victory" of Christ over sin in Christian theology) - the sinful gamblers' dice thus disappearing between the end of the Sanctus and the beginning of the Benedictus, a gap during which, in liturgical practice of Josquin's time, the Host was elevated and the holiest portion of the Mass began.