palace of the King's, called the Alhambra, whose buildings are, after
the fashion of the Moors, adorned with vast quantities of jasper-
stone; many courts, many fountains, and by reason it is situated on
the side of a hill, and not built uniform, many gardens with ponds in
them, and many baths made of jasper, and many principal rooms roofed
with the mosaic work, which exceeds the finest enamel I ever saw. Here
I was showed in the midst of a very large piece of rich embroidery
made by the Moors of Grenada, in the middle as long as half a yard of
the true Tyrian dye, which is so glorious a colour that it cannot be
expressed: it hath the glory of scarlet, the beauty of purple, and is
so bright, that when the eye is removed upon any other object it seems
as white as snow.

The entry into this great Palace is of stone, for a Porter's-lodge,
but very magnificent, through the gate below, which is adorned with
figures of forestwork, in which the Moors did transcend. High above
this gate was a bunch of keys cut in stone likewise, with this motto:
'Until that hand holds those keys, the Christians shall never possess
this Alhambra.' This was a prophecy they had, in which they animated
themselves, by reason of the impossibility that ever they should meet.
But see, how true there is a time for all things! It happened that
when the Moors were besieged in that place by Don Fernando and his
Queen Isabella, the King with an arrow out of a bow, which they then
used in war, shooting the first arrow as their custom is, cut that
part of the stone that holds the keys, which was in fashion of a
chain, and the keys falling, remained in the hand underneath. This
strange accident preceded but a few days the conquest of the town of
Grenada and kingdom.

They have in this place an iron grate, fixed into the side of the