The Enclosure,
Which Defends The Tomb From The Too Near Approach Of Visiters, Forms An
Irregular Square Of About Twenty Paces, In The Midst Of The Colonnade,
Several Of Its Pillars Being Included Within It:
It is an iron railing,
painted green, about two-thirds the height of the columns, filling up
the intervals between them, so as to leave their upper part projecting
above it, and entirely open.
The railing is of good workmanship, in
imitation of filligree, and is interwoven with open-worked inscriptions
of yellow bronze, supposed by the vulgar to be of gold, and of so close
a texture, that no view can be gained into
[p.332] the interior, except by several small windows, about six inches
square, which are placed in the four sides of the railing, about five
feet above the ground. On the south side of the railing, where are the
two principal of these windows, before which the visiters stand when
praying, the railing is thinly plated over with silver, and the often-
repeated inscription of "La Illaha il Allah al hak al Mobyn," ("There is
no God but God, the evident Truth,") is carried in silver letters across
the railing all round these windows. This enclosure is entered by four
gates, three of which are constantly kept shut, and one only is opened,
every morning and .evening, to admit the eunuchs, whose office it is to
clean the floor and light the lamps. Each of these gates has its
particular name:
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