The interior of the mosque owes its dignity to the same greatness of style and perfection of the proportions.  The three aisles are formed by massive piers of single blocks of marble.  With all its simplicity, there is consummate art both in the placing of the ornament and in the beautiful springing of the arches from the supporting piers.  The fine workmanship is worthy of the art.

On either side of the mosque there is a small chamber for the ladies of the zanana, with a window filled with a carved marble grille looking on to the interior.  They could thus attend to the services of the mosque without being seen.  The staircases on the right and left of the courtyard give private access to the apartments of the palace.

The Persian inscription inlaid in black marble under the wide, projecting cornice of the mosque is a poetic tribute to the beauty of the building and a panegyric of its founder.  From it we learn that it was built by Shah Jahan, it took seven years to build, and cost three lakhs of rupees.

The dimensions of the courtyard, given by Fergusson, are 154 feet by 158 feet; and of the Mosque:  length, 159 feet; depth, 56 feet, internally.

The Dersane Darwaza.

Nearly opposite to the Muti Masjid, you pass on the left an inclined passage which leads to an old gateway, a part of Akbar’s buildings.  Very little remains of the original buildings which connected it with the palace in the time of Jahangir, but there cannot be much doubt that this was the locality described by William Finch as the “Dersane Darwaza, leading into a fair court, extending along the river, in which the King looks forth every morning at sun-rising, which he salutes, and then his nobles resort to their Tesillam (obeisance).  Right under the place where he looks out, is a kind of scaffold, whereon his nobles stand, but the Addis with others await below in the court.  Here also every noone he looketh forth to behold Tamashah, or fighting of Elephants, Lyons, Buffles, killing of Deare with Leopards, which is a custom on every day of the weeke, Sunday excepted, on which is no fighting; but Tuesday, on the contrary, is a day of blood, both of fighting beasts, and justiced men, the King judging and seeing executions.”

The Diwan-i-am.

The road now turns towards the right, through the Mina Bazar, the old market-place, where merchants displayed jewellery, brocades, and similar stuffs for the nobles and others attending the court.  A gateway leads into the great courtyard of the Diwan-i-am, or Hall of Public Audience, which, with its surrounding arcades, was for a long time used as an armoury for the British garrison.  The hall itself was restored in 1876 by Sir John Strachey, then Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces.  The courtyard has recently been put back, as far as possible, into its original condition by Lord Curzon’s orders.  A further great improvement has been made by the removal of the hideous modern additions which entirely concealed all the arcades.