BAS-RELIEFS. 
663 
forms the vertex of a triangle, of which the north front of the 
square building is the base; hence it faces neither of the doors, 
but probably was the entrance into some spacious outer court: 
its noble remains are cruelly defaced, but enough is left to shew 
both its purpose and ornaments. At S a little further to the 
north, we see an enormous insulated column terribly broken, 
but still I was enabled to make a copy of its fine capital. (Plate 
XLV. fig. E.) But to return to the square building itself. The 
sides of the principal doors (c c) are richly adorned with sculp¬ 
ture ; and in the most elevated compartment of the whole, we 
find the kingly personage mentioned before, seated on his chair 
of state, (Plate XLIX.) with both feet resting on a footstool. 
Over his head, are the bas-relief remains of a canopy supported 
by slender pillars, the whole profusely decorated with fret-work, 
fringes, and borders of lions and bulls. After what we had 
seen before, there can be little doubt that the attendant spirit 
had, as usual, surmounted the group, but it was now entirely 
broken away. The seat of the royal personage answers exactly 
to the description given by Brisson in one of the passages he 
has selected as illustrative of Persian antiquities and customs, 
and which states, that the throne of the king of Persia was a 
chair gorgeously inlaid with gold, covered with a splendid carpet 
or cushion, and so high from the ground, that a stool was always 
placed at its feet. This description is not unlike that of the throne 
of Solomon, in the second book of Chronicles : — “ Moreover, 
the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure 
gold ; and there was a footstool of gold, and stays on each side of 
the sitting-place.” — So far, the chair, or throne : the platform, or 
pedestal, or either one or the other, on which it might stand, 
are totally distinct from the idea of the throne itself. That such 
