The Petrified Birds on the Dome of the Rock

Ve herbir mermeri üstâd-ı mermer-bür birer san‘at ile biçmiş kim sahîfeteyni yan yana geldikde gûnâ-gûn kitâbeler ve eşkâl-i acîbe [vü] garîbeler nümâyândır. Hattâ bâb-ı (---) taşrasında Sahra-i şerîfe müteveccih oldukda bu kapunun sağ tarafında dîvâra kaplı mermerde iki horos tasvîri birbirine minkâr minkâra cenâhların küşâde kılup dururlar. Bi-emrillâh biçme ebrî seng-i elvânlarda böyle ibret-nümâ firâvândır. im‘ân-ı nazarla görüldükde dürlü dürlü eşkâller ve şükûfeler zâhir olur.

Each sort of marble [on the Dome of the Rock et al.] is the very best of its kind. These flagstones are so cut as to form pairs; placed one beside the other they produce many curious and marvelous designs. Even outside the [southern] gate, on entering the Dome of the Rock, there is the picture of two roosters, beak against beak, with outspread wings, on the encasing marble to the right-hand side of the gate. By divine decree (bi-amr Allāh) such marvelous things abound in the colors of the veined marble. When they are examined carefully, shapes and flowers of various types become apparent.

Ad portam australem Templi Turcae habent utrinque locum orationis, sive mesquitam intra murum dolatis marmoribus exornatam, super quas stat una columba marmorea, quae se invicem aspiciunt, easque lapicidam intra marmor, dum illud dissecaret, ab ipsa natura sic formatas invenisse dicunt.

At the south door of the Temple [i.e. the Dome of the Rock] the Muslims have on each side a place of prayer, or mosque [!], which is decorated with hewn marble embedded inside the wall. Above each one of these [places of prayer] stands a marble dove, which stares at the other. They say that the stonecutter found those birds, which were formed by nature itself, inside the marble, when he cut it.

The great King Solomon understood the language of beasts, birds, and fishes, and, when he had occasion to do so, could converse with all of them. One day, soon after he had completed the temple, as he was standing at a window of the royal palace, he overheard a conversation between a pair of birds that were sitting on the housetop. Presently the male, who was evidently trying to impress the female with his importance, exclaimed: “Solomon is a conceited fool! Why should he be so vain of this pile of buildings that he has raised? I, if I wished, could kick them all over in a few minutes.”

The king, greatly enraged by this pompous speech, summoned the offender into his presence and demanded what he meant by such an outrageous boast. “Your majesty,” replied the bird, “will, I am sure, forgive my audacity, when I explain that I was in the company of a female; since your majesty doubtless knows from experience that in such circumstances the temptation to boast is almost irresistible.” The monarch, forgetting his anger in his amusement, said with a smile, “Go your way this time, but see that you do not repeat the offense;” and the bird, after a profound obeisance, flew away to rejoin his mate.

He had hardly alighted before the female, unable to repress her curiosity, eagerly inquired why he had been summoned to the palace. “O,” said the impudent biped, “the king heard me tell you that, if I chose, I could kick down all his buildings in no time, and he sent for me to beg me not to do it.” Solomon, who, of course, overheard this remark also, was so indignant at the incorrigible vanity of its author that he at once turned both birds into stone. They remain to this day a reminder of the familiar saying, “The peace of mankind consists in guarding the tongue.”

The great Suleymān el Ḥakım was sitting one day near a window of his palace, listening to the love-talk of two pigeons upon the house-top. Said the male bird loftily: “Who is Suleymān the king? And what are all his buildings to be so proud of? Why, I, if I put my mind to it, could kick them down in a minute!”

Hearing this, Suleymān leant out of the window and called the boaster, asking how he could tell such a lie. “Your Majesty,” was the cringing reply, “will forgive me when I explain that I was talking to a female. You know one cannot help boasting in such circumstances.” The monarch laughed and bade the rogue begone, warning him never to speak in that tone again. The pigeon, after a profound reverence, flew to rejoin his mate.

The female at once asked why the king had called him. “Oh,” came the answer, “he had overheard what I was saying to you, and asked me not to do it.” So enraged was Suleymān at the irrepressible vanity of the speaker that he turned both birds into stone, as a warning to men not to boast, and to women not to encourage them.