rom the ceilings, corniced
with fretted gold, great chandeliers hung, one of which, it is said, was
so large that it contained 1804 lamps. Clusters of frail marble columns
surprised the beholder with the vast weights they bore. In the boudoirs
of the sultanas they were sometimes of verd antique, and incrusted with
lapis lazuli. The furniture was of sandal and citron wood, inlaid with
mother-of-pearl, ivory, silver, or relieved with gold and precious
malachite. In orderly confusion were arranged vases of rock crystal,
Chinese porcelains, and tables of exquisite mosaic. The winter
apartments were hung with rich tapestry; the floors were covered with
embroidered Persian carpets. Pillows and couches, of elegant forms, were
scattered about the rooms, perfumed with frankincense. It was the
intention of the Saracen architect, by excluding the view of the
external landscape, to concentrate attention on his work; and since the
representation of the human form was religiously forbidden, and that
source of decoration denied, his imagination ran riot with the
complicated arabesques he introduced, and sought every opportunity of
replacing the prohibited works of art by the trophies and rarities of
the garden. For this reason, the Arabs never produced artists; religion
turned them from the beautiful, and made them soldiers, philosophers,
and men of affairs. Splendid flowers and rare exotics ornamented the
courtyards and even the inner chambers. Great care was taken to make due
provision for the cleanliness, occupation, and amusement of the inmates.
Through pipes of metal, water, both warm and cold, to suit the season of
the year, ran into baths of marble; in niches, where the current of air
could be artificially directed, hung dripping alcarazzas. [Sidenote:
Libraries and works of taste.] There were whispering-galleries for the
amusement of the women; labyrinths and marble play-courts for the
children; for the master himself, grand libraries. The Khalif Alhakem's
was so large that the catalogue alone filled forty volumes. He had also
apartments for the transcribing, binding, and ornamenting of books. A
taste for caligraphy and the possession of splendidly-illuminated
manuscripts seems to have anticipated in the khalifs, both of Asia and
Spain, the taste for statuary and paintings among the later popes of
Rome.

[Sidenote: The court of Abderrahman III.] Such were the palace and
gardens of Zehra, in which Abderrahman III. honoured his