He filled it with mercury, so that the light would be reflected from the surface into the hall. His qadi, Mundhir ibn Saʿid al-Balluṭi (1), came in, paused, and recited: “Were it not that mankind might all become one community, We would have made for those who disbelieve in the All-Merciful roofs of silver for their houses…,” the two verses [al-Zukhruf 33–34]. Then he said, “I have delivered my admonition to Abū al-Ḥakam.”

The ruler thereupon rose from the gathering and ordered the gold and jewels to be stripped away.

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Marrākushī states in his History: “Al-Nāṣir’s realm grew vast; he ruled every district of al-Andalus, and he possessed Tangiers, Ceuta, and other towns on the African shore. His entire reign was one of warfare. Yet because of his praiseworthy achievements the Muslims enjoyed a period of security.”

It is said that the construction of al-Zahrāʾ was completed in twelve years, with a thousand masons at work each day, each mason assisted by twelve laborers.

Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ṣaffār relates that when Yūsuf ibn Tashfīn, ruler of the Maghrib, entered al-Zahrāʾ—already ruined by fire and demolition for ninety years, most of its treasures having been removed to Córdoba and Seville—and saw the remains that still testified to its beauty, he exclaimed, “Whoever built this was a fool.”

Abū Marwān ibn Sirāj retorted, “How can he be called a fool when, in his day, one of his noblewomen spent her wealth to ransom captives, and no prisoner was left in al-Andalus needing ransom?”