MAJESTIC SYMBOLICAL SCULPTURES. 
591 
some sculptured symbolical image. I have before mentioned 
that these columns had been placed at about twenty-four feet 
from the first portal; an equal space separates them from a 
second (E), which differs in no way from the preceding, either 
in form or dimensions, excepting that its length is eighteen feet 
instead of twenty-one. The inner sides of this are sculptured in 
like manner with the other; but the animals represented here, 
are of a very extraordinary formation. (Plates XXXII. XXXIII.) 
Their size is gigantic, like the others; but their appearance is 
monstrous. They have the body and legs of a bull, ornamented 
with similar trappings to those already described; but an 
enormous pair of wings project from the shoulders, extending 
high over the back, and covering the breast, whence they might 
seem to spring, as the whole chest is cased with their plumage. 
The huge feathers which compose the wings are exquisitely cut; 
corresponding to each other, with the usual care so peculiar to 
the earliest sculptors of this country. The heads of the animals 
look direct to the mountain, which is due east, and show the 
faces of men ; but the blind zeal of the viziers of the caliphs, if 
not some later hand, has terribly mutilated the features ; yet 
enough remains of the whole visage and its appendages, to show 
that it was meant to symbolise no ordinary personage. The 
expression of the countenance is severe ; and a long and care¬ 
fully curled beard adds to the majesty of the general air. The 
ears are those of a bull, and from them hang large drop ear-rings 
of a very elegant form. On the head is a cylindrical diadem, 
on both sides of which, horns are clearly represented, winding 
from the brows upwards, towards the front of the crown; the 
whole being surmounted by a sort of coronet, formed of a range 
of leaves like the lotos, and bound with a fillet beautifully 
