The
External Railing Is Separated By A Dark Narrow Passage From The Inner,
Which It Surrounds; And Is Of Iron Filigree Painted Of A Vivid Grass
Green,-With A View To The Garden.
Here carefully inserted in the
verdure, and doubly bright by contrast, is the gilt or burnished brass
work forming the long and graceful letters of the Suls character, and
disposed into the Moslem creed, the Profession of Unity, and similar
religious sentences.
On the South side, for greater honour, the railing is plated over with
silver, and silver letters are interlaced with it. This fence, which
connects the columns and forbids passage to all men, may be compared to
the baldacchino of Roman churches. It has four gates: that to the South
is the Bab al-Muwajihah; Eastward is the gate of our Lady Fatimah;
westward the Bab al-Taubah (of Repentance), opening into the Rauzah or
garden; and to the North, the Bab al-Shami or Syrian gate. They are
constantly kept closed, except the fourth, which admits, into the dark
narrow passage above alluded to, the officers who have charge of the
treasures there deposited; and the eunuchs who sweep the floor, light
[p.316] the lamps, and carry away the presents sometimes thrown in here
by devotees.[FN#32]
In the Southern side of the fence are three windows, holes about half a
foot square, and placed from four to five feet above the ground; they
are said to be between three and four cubits distant from the Apostle's
head.
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