The most competent critics have now arrived at the conclusion that these paintings are of the fourteenth century, and therefore executed under the Muslim sovereigns, in defiance of the precepts of the Koran. Whether they were the work of a Mohammedan it is not so easy to say. Gayangos has pointed out remarkable similarities between these paintings and those in the Campo Santo at Pisa; and on the whole it is probable that they were executed by an Italian artist, whom the Muslims may not have scrupled to employ to do a thing for them unlawful. A parallel instance of casuistry is that of London Jews, who on certain feasts employ Christians to perform forbidden menial offices. It should also be said that in the opinion of some modern Muslim doctors the prohibition of sculpture and painting is not to be taken as absolute. In the Sala de la Justicia was found a basin for ablutions, now in the Museum, on which are interesting reliefs of lions, deer, and eagles. According to the inscription, this was designed in 1305 for the service of the mosque, a fact which seems to support the view of the authorities just mentioned. It was in this hall that Ferdinand and Isabel caused Mass to be celebrated after the Reconquest, and here that the cross was set up by Cardinal Mendoza. The devices of the Catholic sovereigns--the Yoke and Sheaf of Arrows--have been introduced into the decoration of the alcoves. The ruinous tower and apartment to the south of the Hall of Justice, called the Rauda, appears to have been the mausoleum of the Sultans. The niches in which the _turbehs_ were placed may still be distinguished, and the long, narrow trough used for the purification of the corpse. In the Museum may be seen three tablets with the epitaphs of the Sultans Yusuf III. and Mohammed II. and of a prince Abu-l-Hejaj, probably the former’s son.