تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 12.3.3

12.3.3

At the third gate are platforms on which the clerks of the gate sit. It is one of their customs that no one enters by this gate except one whom the sultan has designated for it, and for each person he designates a number of his companions and people who enter with him. Of everyone who comes to this gate, the clerks write down that so-and-so came in the first hour, or the second, or whichever of the following hours up to the end of the day, and the sultan reads this after the late evening prayer. They also write down everything that happens at the gate, and he has appointed some of the sons of maliks to convey all that they write to the sultan.