  Previous X-ray and ultraviolet spectroscopy suggested that the Fe/O abundance
ratio in NGC 1068 may be abnormally high. We have measured some 15 X-ray lines
in NGC 1068, to an accuracy better than a factor 2, and modeled the continuum
in two different ways. The first assumes that the hard X-ray continuum is the
reflection of the nuclear source by two, extended, photoionized gas components;
a warm (T$\sim 1.5 \times 10^5$ K) gas and a hot (T$\sim 3 \times 10^6$ K) gas.
All the observed emission lines are produced in this gas and there is an
additional, extended 0.6--3 keV pure continuum component. The second model is a
combination of a hard reflected continuum with a soft thermal plasma component.
The calculations show that the emission lines in the photoionized gas model are
in very good agreement with the observed ones assuming solar metallicity for
all elements except for iron, which is more than twice solar, and oxygen, which
is less than 0.25 solar. Models with solar oxygen are possible if the 0.5--1
keV continuum is weaker but they do not explain the magnesium and silicon
lines. The thermal model fit requires extremely low metallicity (0.04 solar)
for all elements. We discuss these findings and compare them with the ASCA
spectra of recently observed starburst galaxies. Given the strong H-like and
He-like lines, as well as the prominent Fe-L emission features, the origin of
the soft X-ray lines in this source is more likely photoionized gas. We compare
our model with the recent Iwasawa etal (1997) paper. We also show that
fluorescence lines of low-Z element lines in AGN is likely to be larger than
previously assumed.
