agreeable
rays of light to the spectators; with such stones of other sorts also
as were most curious and best esteemed, as being most precious in their
kind. Hard by this meander a texture of net-work ran round it, the
middle of which appeared like a rhombus, into which were inserted
rock-crystal and amber, which, by the great resemblance of the
appearance they made, gave wonderful delight to those that saw them. The
chapiters of the feet imitated the first buddings of lilies, while their
leaves were bent and laid under the table, but so that the chives were
seen standing upright within them. Their bases were made of a carbuncle;
and the place at the bottom, which rested on that carbuncle, was one
palm deep, and eight fingers in breadth. Now they had engraven upon it
with a very fine tool, and with a great deal of pains, a branch of ivy
and tendrils of the vine, sending forth clusters of grapes, that you
would guess they were nowise different from real tendrils; for they were
so very thin, and so very far extended at their extremities, that
they were moved with the wind, and made one believe that they were the
product of nature, and not the representation of art. They also made the
entire workmanship of the table appear to be threefold, while the joints
of the several parts were so united together as to be invisible, and the
places where they joined could not be distinguished. Now the thickness
of the table was not less than half a cubit. So that this gift, by the
king's great generosity, by the great value of the materials, and
the variety of its exquisite structure, and the artificer's skill
in imitating nature with graying tools, was at length brought to
perfection, while the king was very desirous, that though in largeness
it were not to be different from that which was already dedicated
to God, yet that in exquisite workmanship, and the novelty of the
contrivances, and in the splendor of its construction, it should far
exceed it, and be more illustrious than that was.

10. Now of the cisterns of gold there were two, whose sculpture was of
scale-work, from its basis to its belt-like circle, with various sorts
of stones enchased in the spiral circles. Next to which there was upon
it a meander of a cubit in height; it was composed of stones of all
sorts of colors. And next to this was the rod-work engraven; and next
to that was a rhombus in a texture of net-work, drawn out to the brim of
the basin, while small shields