TOMB CALLED MESCHED MADRE-LSflLIEMAN. 
497 
such was the use to which it was applied, in times much later 
than its origin ; and a Saracenic porch and inscription, show to 
what race this adaption may be ascribed. On closely examining 
the whole of the lower part of the building, the same architect 
who built the temple, was discernible here. The materials are 
marble, and each stone hewn with equal care, and fitted with as 
scrupulous a nicety. The plan is that of a quadrangle, of about 
60 or 80 feet on every side ; a great gate appearing to have opened 
from it to the south-east. A continued range of small dark 
chambers, even with the ground, run along the four sides of this 
square, with each a door, scarcely four feet high, opening into 
the quadrangle; over the flat lintel of these cell-like entrances, 
lies a huge stone on each, some much larger, every way, than the 
doors were in length. 
About two hundred yards southward from these remains, 
rises the singular structure commonly known as the tomb of the 
mother of Sulieman, and, in the language of the country, called 
Mesched Madre-i-Sulieman. 
When the natives do not ascribe any extraordinary place, of 
whose real founder they are ignorant, to the devils or deevs, they 
usually pronounce it to have been the work of Solomon. There 
cannot be a more corroborating instance of the universal fame, 
over the East, of the great Jewish monarch of that name, than 
this widely-spread, and abiding memory of his wisdom and 
power, even in the countries into which the people of his nation 
were so often led, in the humiliated character of captives. His 
sea/, is esteemed a talisman to dissolve all hostile enchantments, 
and of a potency to make the whole world of genii at the com¬ 
mand of its wearer. But the Saracenic vestiges scattered amongst 
these ruins, lead one to conclude that the Soloman or Sulieman, 
