The peacock throne and the six other thrones in the palace are fully described by Tavernier. (Transl. and ed. by V. Ball, vol. i, pp. 381- 7.) Further details will be found in Carr Stephen, Archaeology of Delhi, pp. 220-7.

25.  The throne here referred to was a makeshift arrangement used by the later emperors.  Nadir Shah in 1738 cleared the palace of the peacock throne and almost everything portable of value.  The little that was left the Marathas took.  Their chief prize was the silver filagree ceiling of the Diwan-i-Khas.  This hall was, ’if not the most beautiful, certainly the most highly ornamented of all Shah Jahan’s buildings.  It is larger certainly, and far richer in ornament than that of Agra, though hardly so elegant in design; but nothing can exceed the beauty of the inlay of precious stones with which it is adored, or the general poetry of the design, It is round the roof of this hall that the famous inscription runs:  “If there is a heaven on earth, it is this, it is this “, which may safely be rendered into the sober English assertion that no palace now existing in the world possesses an apartment of such singular elegance as this’ (Fergusson, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 311).

26.  All the events alluded to are related in detail by Bernier and Manucci.  Sulaiman and Sipihr Shikoh were the sons of Dara Shikoh.  The author makes a slip in saying that Shah Jahan sat in the palace at Delhi to negotiate with his grandson.  During that negotiation Shah Jahan was at Agra.

27.  It is related that the coffee was delivered to the two sovereigns in this room upon a gold salver by the most polished gentleman of the court.  His motions, as he entered the gorgeous apartment, amidst the splendid train of the two Emperors, were watched with great anxiety; if he presented the coffee first to his own master, the furious conqueror, before whom the sovereign of India and all his courtiers trembled, might order him to instant execution; if he presented it to Nadir first, he would insult his own sovereign out of fear of the stranger.  To the astonishment of all, he walked up with a steady step direct to his own master.  ‘I cannot’, said he, ’aspire to the honour of presenting the cup to the king of kings, your majesty’s honoured guest, nor would your majesty wish that any hand but your own should do so.’  The Emperor took the cup from the golden salver, and presented it to Nadir Shah, who said with a smile as he took it, ’Had all your officers known and done their duty like this man, you had never, my good cousin, seen me and my Kizil Bashis at Delhi; take care of him for your own sake, and get round you as many like him as you can.’ [W.  H. S.]

28.  The famous inscription of Saad-Ullah Khan, supposed to be in the handwriting of Rashid, the greatest caligraphist of his time; Agar Firdaus bar rue zamin ast—­hamin ast, to hamin ast, to hamin ast’ (Carr Stephen, p. 229; Fanshawe, p. 35 and plate).