تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12.8: ذكر جلوسه يوم العيد وذكر المبخرة العظمى والسرير الأعظم

On the feast day the palace is carpeted and adorned with the most splendid decoration, and the bārka is pitched over the whole of the audience hall. It is a huge tent standing on many massive poles and surrounded by domes on every side. Imitation trees are made of coloured silk with imitation flowers on them, and they are set in three rows in the audience hall, and between every two trees is placed a gold chair with a covered cushion on it. The great throne is set up at the head of the audience hall; it is entirely of pure gold, its legs studded with jewels, twenty-three spans long and about half that in width. It comes apart, and its pieces are put together so that they join, and each piece of it is carried by a number of men because of the weight of the gold. The cushion is placed on it, and the parasol studded with jewels is raised over the Sultan's head.

When he mounts the throne, the chamberlains and the heralds call out in loud voices: "In the name of God!" Then the people come forward to greet him: first the qāḍīs, the preachers, the scholars, the shaykhs, and the Sultan's brothers, relatives and in-laws; then the aʿizza; then the vizier; then the commanders of the troops; then the chiefs of the mamlūks; then the senior soldiers. They greet him one after another without crowding or jostling.

Among their customs on the feast day is that everyone who holds a village granted to him brings gold dinars tied up in a cloth with his name written on it and throws them into a gold basin there, so that a great sum accumulates from them, which the Sultan gives to whomever he pleases. When the people have finished greeting, food is set before them according to their ranks.

On that day the great censer is set up. It is like a tower of pure gold, in separate pieces which they join together when they wish to assemble it, and a single piece of it is carried by a number of men. Inside it are three chambers which the censer-men enter to burn Qamārī aloeswood, Qāqulī [aloeswood], grey ambergris and Jāwī [benzoin], until their smoke fills the whole audience hall. The young pages hold gold and silver flasks filled with rose-water and orange-blossom water, which they pour liberally over the people. This throne and this censer are brought out only on the two feasts. For the rest of the days of the feast the Sultan sits on a lesser gold throne, and a [separate] bārka is pitched with three gates, inside which the Sultan sits. At its first gate stands ʿImād al-Mulk Sartīz, at the second gate Malik Nakbiya, and at the third gate Yūsuf Bughra. On the right stand the amīrs of the silaḥdār mamlūks, and on the left likewise, and the people stand according to their ranks. The superintendent of the bārka, Malik Ṭughī, holds a gold staff and his deputy a silver staff; they arrange the people and straighten the rows. The vizier and the secretaries stand behind him, and the chamberlains and heralds stand [in their places]. Then the entertainers come: first the daughters of the infidel Hindu kings taken captive that year, who sing and dance, and the Sultan gives them to the amīrs and the aʿizza. After them come the rest of the infidels' daughters, who sing and [dance], and he gives them to his brothers, relatives, in-laws and the sons of the maliks. The Sultan sits for this after the afternoon prayer. On the following day he again sits after the afternoon prayer in the same order, and the singing girls are brought; they sing and dance, and he gives them to the mamlūk amīrs. On the third day he marries off his relatives and bestows gifts on them; on the fourth day he frees male slaves; on the fifth day he frees slave girls; on the sixth day he marries male slaves to slave girls; and on the seventh day he gives alms, and in abundance.