تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.27

13.27.1

On the day after we went out to the Sultan, each of us was given a horse from the Sultan's mounts, with an ornamented saddle and bridle. The Sultan rode to enter his capital, and we rode in his vanguard with Ṣadr al-Jahān. The elephants were decked out before the Sultan, with banners set on them and sixteen parasols raised on them, some embroidered with gold and some studded with jewels; one of these parasols was raised over the Sultan's head, and the ghāshiya (saddle-cover), which is a jewel-studded covering, was carried before him. Small ballistas were placed on some of the elephants, and when the Sultan came near the city, dinars and dirhams mixed together were shot from those ballistas, while the footmen before the Sultan and others who were present picked them up. They kept scattering them until they reached the palace. Before him were thousands of footmen on foot, and wooden pavilions covered with silk cloths had been built, with singing girls in them, as we have described.