sic. Grace was about it--the grace of a Queen who prays and does
not command; who, seated in her royalty yet inclines all hearts to love.
And he saw that its grace was her grace, and its soul her soul, and
that she gave it for the consolation of the Emperor.

And he fell on his face and worshipped the Master-Builder of the
Universe, saying,--"Praise cannot express thy Perfection. Thine Essence
confounds thought. Surely I am but the tool in the hand of the Builder."

And when he awoke, he was lying in his own secret chamber, but beside
him was a drawing such as the craftsmen make of the work they have
imagined in their hearts. And it was the Palace of the Tomb.

Henceforward, how should he waver? He was as a slave who obeys his
master, and with haste he summoned to Agra his Army of Beauty.

Then were assembled all the master craftsmen of India and of the outer
world. From Delhi, from Shiraz, even from Baghdad and Syria, they came.
Muhammad Hanif, the wise mason, came from Kandahar, Muhammad Sayyid from
Mooltan. Amanat Khan, and other great writers of the holy Koran, who
should make the scripts of the Book upon fine marble. Inlayers from
Kanauj, with fingers like those of the Spirits that bowed before Solomon
the King, who should make beautiful the pure stone with inlay of jewels,
as did their forefathers for the Rajah of Mewar; mighty dealers with
agate, cornelian, and lapis lazuli. Came also, from Bokhara, Ata
Muhammad and Shakri Muhammad, that they might carve the lilies of the
field, very glorious, about that Flower of the World. Men of India, men
of Persia, men of the outer lands, they came at the bidding of Ustad
Isa, that the spirit of his vision might be made manifest.

And a great council was held among these servants of beauty, so they
made a model in little of the glory that was to be, and laid it at the
feet of the Shah-in-Shah; and he allowed it, though not as yet fully
discerning their intent. And when it was approved, Ustad Isa called to
him a man of Kashmir; and the very hand of the Creator was upon this
man, for he could make gardens second only to the Gardens of Paradise,
having been born by that Dal Lake where are those roses of the earth,
the Shalimar and the Nishat Bagh; and to him said Ustad Isa,--

"Behold, Rain Lal Kashmiri, consider this design! Thus and thus shall
a white palace, exquisite in perfection, arise on the banks of Jumna.
Here, in little, in this model of sandalwood, see what shall