144 
PERSEPOLIS TO ISPAHAN. 
gone out to greet the Envoy, by the discharge of their matchlocks. 
About a mile further are situated the collective ruins, called by the 
people of the country Mesjid Madre Suleiman , the tomb of the mother 
of Solomon. The first object is a pillar erect, a plain shaft without a 
capital ten feet five inches in circumference. Near it are three pilasters, 
the fronts of which are excavated in deep niches, and the sides 
inscribed with the following characters. (See plate XXIX.) From the 
pieces of masonry around, the pilasters appeared to have enclosed a 
hall; the interior of which was decorated with columns, but I resigned 
the hope of ascertaining the plan of its original form, when I saw two 
similar masses; one, at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards, 
with a corresponding inscription; and the intermediate space (and 
indeed the whole plain) strewed with the fragments of marbles. 
Having sketched these objects, I continued my way along the plain 
to the West, towards two buildings; which, at a distance indeed, ap¬ 
peared scarcely worthy of notice, but which on a nearer inspection 
proved full of interest. The first is a ruined building of Mahomedan 
construction, which is now turned into a caravanserai. The door was 
once arched, and on the architrave are the remains of a fine Arabic 
inscription. 
The other is a building of a form so extraordinary that the people 
of the country often call it the court of the deevis or devil. It rests 
upon a square base of large blocks of marble, which rise in seven 
layers pyramidically. It is in form a parallelogram ; the lowest range 
of the foundation is forty-three by thirty-seven feet; and the edifice 
itself, which crowns the summit, diminishes to twenty-one by sixteen 
feet five inches. It is covered by a shelving roof built of the same 
massy stone as its base and sides, which are all fixed together by 
clamps of iron, and which on a general view correspond all with the 
measure of one at the base, (fourteen feet eight inches in length, five 
feet in depth, and three feet six inches in breadth.) I was not suffered 
to enter; and through a fissure in the door I could perceive nothing 
within but a small chamber blackened as it appeared by smoke. 
