التاريخ اليميني 46.13

46.13

When those wars had laid down their burdens and the spoils had undone their buttons for him, he turned his rein toward the bank of the city that bears the name of the place of worship, namely Mahrat al-Hind, to view its buildings, which its people claim to be the work of jinn rather than of men: marvels of foundations and roofs, wonders of middles and edges. He saw what runs contrary to custom, and whose reporters would need witnesses, nay, eyewitness sight. A city whose wall was built of solid rock, with two gates opening from it onto the water that surrounds it, its buildings set upon lofty hills to protect them from the harm of floods and the raids of the sky's rains. On its two sides stood a thousand palaces, like the other buildings in solidity, containing idol-temples whose joints were fitted together with nails flush with the surfaces of the masonry, hiding the grooves behind them out of sight. In the centre of the city was an idol-temple that matched its sisters or surpassed them, and kept pace with its peers, nay, was more finely wrought; neither scribes with the pens of the inkwell nor painters with the tips of their brushes could achieve its like in beauty and adornment, and in carvings that dazzle the eyes with their brilliance. [222 b]