ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 123 



the wealth of his kingdom, and enabled him to adorn 

 his capital with gardens, vineyards, groves, and hunt- 

 ing parks, not inferior to those of Mareb. The Eu- 

 phrates was covered with his boats and pleasure- 

 barges ; and his preserves were richly stocked with 

 gazelles and other animals of chase. To the care of 

 this prince the Persian monarch, Yezdijird, intrusted 

 the education of his only surviving child and suc- 

 cessor, the celebrated Baharam-Gour (the Varanes 

 of Roman history), who is reported to have won 

 back, in a dispute with the usurper Khoosroo, his 

 father's crown, by carrying it off from his less daring 

 competitor when placed between two furious lions. 

 It was chiefly for the accommodation of his royal 

 pupil that Nooman erected those magnificent build- 

 ings or castles called Khavarnak, — the Palace of 

 Delights, — and Sadir, reckoned the most charming 

 and salubrious residence in all Irak. The imagina- 

 tion of the Arabs has described them as altogether 

 unrivalled inelegance and splendour ; but the unlucky 

 architect, Sennamar, having incautiously admitted 

 that he had not expended the utmost of his skill on 

 those boasted structures, was precipitated by order 

 of Nooman from one of the loftiest towers. Hence 

 the proverbial expression applied to a person un- 

 gratefully used or inadequately remunerated for his 

 labours, that " he has met with the reward of Sen- 

 namar."* 



Nooman is said to have become a convert to 

 Christianity, when he abdicated the throne, and, like 

 another Charles V., retired from the cares and func- 

 tions of royalty, to moralize on the vanity and eva- 

 nescence of all sublunary grandeur. Conducting his 

 courtiers to the top of Khavarnak, he pointed to the 

 watered gardens and palm-groves, the pastures 



* " The Arabs," says D'Herbelot, " reckoned this palace one of 

 the wonders of the world. A single stone fastened the whole 

 structure ; the colour of the walls varied frequently in a day."— 

 Biblioth. Orient. 



