The slab over the Queen occupies the centre of the apartments above and in the vault below, and that over her husband lies on the left as we enter.  At one end of the slab in the vault her name is inwrought, ‘Mumtaz-i-mahal Banu Begam’, the ornament of the palace, Banu Begam, and the date of her death, 1631.  That of her husband and the date of his death, 1666, are inwrought upon the other.[9]

She died in giving birth to a daughter, who is said to have been heard crying in the womb by herself and her other daughters.  She sent for the Emperor, and told him that she believed no mother had ever been known to survive the birth of a child so heard, and that she felt her end was near.  She had, she said, only two requests to make; first, that he would not marry again after her death, and get children to contend with hers for his favour and dominions; and, secondly, that he would build for her the tomb with which he had promised to perpetuate her name.  She died in giving birth to the child, as might have been expected when the Emperor, in his anxiety, called all the midwives of the city, and all his secretaries of state and privy counsellors to prescribe for her.  Both her dying requests were granted.  Her tomb was commenced upon immediately.  No woman ever pretended to supply her place in the palace; nor had Shah Jahan, that we know of, children by any other.[10] Tavernier saw this building completed and finished; and tells us that it occupied twenty thousand men for twenty-two years.[11] The mausoleum itself and all the buildings that appertain to it cost 3,17,48,026—­three karor, seventeen lakhs, forty-eight thousand and twenty-six rupees, or 3,174,802 pounds sterling;—­three million one hundred and seventy-four thousand eight hundred and two![12] I asked my wife, when she had gone over it, what she thought of the building.  ‘I cannot’, said she, ’tell you what I think, for I know not how to criticize such a building, but I can tell you what I feel.  I would die to-morrow to have such another over me.’  This is what many a lady has felt, no doubt.

The building stands upon the north side of a large quadrangle, looking down into the clear blue stream of the river Jumna, while the other three sides are enclosed with a high wall of red sandstone.[13] The entrance to this quadrangle is through a magnificent gateway in the south side opposite the tomb; and on the other two sides are very beautiful mosques facing inwards, and corresponding exactly with each other in size, design, and execution.  That on the left, or west, side is the only one that can be used as a mosque or church; because the faces of the audience, and those of all men at their prayers, must be turned towards the tomb of their prophet to the west.  The pulpit is always against the dead wall at the back, and the audience face towards it, standing with their backs to the open front of the building.  The church on the east side is used for the accommodation