One hundred and sixty paces from the church of the Sepulchre, towards the east, is the temple of our Lord. It is a very fair house, circular and lofty, and covered with lead, and well paved with white marble; but the Saracens will not suffer any Christians or Jews to come therein, for they say that no such foul sinful men should come into so holy a place: but I went in there, and in other places where I would, because I had letters of the sultan, with his great seal, and other men have commonly but his signet. In these letters he commanded, of his special grace, to all his subjects, to let me see all the places, and to inform me fully of all the mysteries of every place, and to conduct me from city to city if necessary, and to receive me and my company courteously, and obey all my reasonable requests if they were not contrary to the royal power and dignity of the sultan or of his law. And to others, who have served him and ask him grace, he gives only his signet, which they cause to be borne before them, hanging on a spear, and the people of the country do great worship and reverence to his signet or his seal, and kneel thereto as lowly as we do to the procession of the Host. But they show much greater reverence to his letters, for the admiral, and all other lords to whom they are shown, kneel down before they receive them, and then they take them, and put them on their heads, and after they kiss them, and then they read them, kneeling with great reverence; and then they offer themselves to do all the bearer asks. And in this temple of our Lord were formerly canons regular, who had an abbot to whom they were obedient. And in this temple was Charlemagne, when the angel brought him the prepuce of the circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, which king Charles caused to be brought to Paris, to his chapel; and after that he sent it to Poictiers, and after that to Chartres.