It stands in a small court, the floor
of which is paved with marble. A square screen of marble, with four
small doors, surrounds the sarcophagus. This screen is still more
delicate and finely worked than that in the Taj-Mehal; it is
scarcely conceivable how it was possible to execute such work in
stone. The doors, pillars, and elegant arches are covered with the
most chaste reliefs, as fine and perfect as any that I have seen in
the most artistic towns of Italy. The marble used for them is of
remarkable whiteness and purity, worthy, indeed, of these great
works of art.
Adjoining this are several pretty monuments, all of white marble.
They are passed by with some indifference when the most perfect of
them all has been seen first.
A great deal has been said about a large water basin, which is
surrounded on three sides by cells, already much dilapidated; the
fourth side is open, and from it a beautiful stone staircase, forty
feet broad, leads to the water basin, which is twenty-five feet
deep. Every pilgrim would consider his pilgrimage of no account if
he did not step in here immediately on his arrival.
Divers plunge from the terraces of the cells to the bottom of the
basin, and fetch out the smallest pieces of money which have been
thrown in.
