They are very expensive because of the skill and the time required to execute them.  Well, upon the walls of the tomb of the Princess Arjamand are about two acres of surface covered with such mosaics as fine and as perfect as if each setting were a jewel intended for a queen to wear—­turquoise, coral, garnet, carnelian, jasper, malachite, agate, lapis lazuli, onyx, nacre, bloodstone, tourmaline, sardonyx and a dozen other precious stones of different colors.  The guide book says that twenty-eight different varieties of stone, many of them unknown to modern times, are inlaid in the walls of marble.

The most beautiful of these embellishments are inscriptions, chiefly passages from the Koran and tributes of praise to “The Exalted One of the Palace” who lies buried there, worked out in Arabic and Persian characters, which are the most artistic of any language, and lend themselves gracefully to decorative purposes.  The ninety-nine names of God, which pious Mussulmans love to inscribe, appear in several places.  Over the archway of the entrance is an inscription in Persian characters which reads like a paraphrase of the beatitudes: 

“Only the Pure in Heart can Enter the Garden of God.”

This arch was once inclosed by silver doors, which were carried off by the Persians when they invaded India and sacked the palaces of Agra in 1739.

There is no wood or metal in this building; not a nail or a screw or a bolt of any sort.  It is entirely of marble, mortised and fastened with cement.

The acoustic properties of the rotunda are remarkable and a sound uttered by a human voice will creep around its curves repeating and repeating itself like the vibrations of the gongs of Burmese temples, until it is lost in a whisper at the apex of the dome.  I should like to hear a violin there or a hymn softly sung by some great artist.

In the center of the rotunda Shah Jehan and his beloved wife are supposed to lie side by side in marble caskets, inlaid with rich gems and embellished by infinite skill with lacelike tracery.  But their bodies are actually buried in the basement, and, the guides assert, in coffins of solid gold.  She for whom this tomb was built occupies the center.  Her lord and lover, because he was a man and an emperor, was entitled to a larger sarcophagus, a span loftier and a span longer.  Both of the cenotaphs are embellished with inlaid and carved Arabic inscriptions.  Upon his, in Persian characters, are written these words: 

“His Majesty, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Shadow of Allah, whose Court is now in Heaven; Saith Jesus, on whom be peace, This World is a Bridge; Pass thou over it, Build not upon it!  It lasteth but an Hour; Devote its Minutes to thy Prayers; for the Rest is Unseen and Unknown!”

No other person has such a tomb as this; nor pope, nor potentate, nor emperor.  Nowhere else have human pride and wealth and genius struggled so successfully against the forgetfulness of man.  The Princess Arjamand has little place in history, but a devoted, loving husband has rescued her name from oblivion, and has immortalized her by making her dust the tenant of the most majestic and beautiful of all human monuments.