[1] Nicolo is an abbreviation of the Italian onicolo, meaning "little onyx", a type of stone, often made of different layers in various shades of blue, used for intagli.

The deity holds Vishnu's classical attributes: the gada club, the chakra discus, the wheel and the lotus.

[1] The British Museum describes the inscription as "Bactrian", transliterating it: "(1) saso reo iastoo (2) algo", translated as: "Sas-re(w) the leader of worship (?)".

More recently Roman Ghirshman proposed that the text on the seal was in the Kushan script and mentions three major Hindu gods: "Miarka Yasna Oezo" meaning:"Mihira, Vishnu, Shiva"A more recent interpretation suggests the divinity is Vāsudeva, an early deity whose attributes were later reused in the iconography of Vishnu with the addition of an aureole.

[9] The seal also suggest that a composite cult of the three deities Surya (another name for Mihira, meaning "Sun"), Vishnu and Shiva was current in India circa 500 CE.