The north doorway is set back ·75 metre within the segments of the flanking towers.[42] The doorway is 1·35 metres wide and opens into a small chamber, 2·40 metres square, which is covered by a barrel vault. The inner doorway is set back within an arched niche (Plate 49, Fig. 2). To the west, a small opening has been pierced through the wall (it can be seen in Plate 49, Figs. 1 and 2), but it has been formed merely by removing the bricks of the wall and bears no sign of having existed in the original plan. The arches over the outer doorway and over the interior niche are composed of a course and a half of tiles laid vertically and an outer ring of brick voussoirs laid horizontally. The gateway leads into an irregular courtyard which has been surrounded on three sides by chambers. Near the centre of the court there is a brick tank, 2·90 by 3·25 metres. This seems to have been the only provision which was made for water. A row of chambers 3·50 metres wide lies along the west wall. No. 1 is 5·80 metres long and has been roofed with a barrel vault running north and south. No. 2 has a length of 3·75 metres and was vaulted from east to west. No. 3 is 9·10 metres long and No. 4 is 4·15 metres long. There is no door between Nos. 3 and 4. In the latter room a space of ·80 metre is left open upon the east side and the remainder of the chamber is covered with a barrel vault lying east and west. Judging from the analogy of similar rooms at Ukhaiḍir, No. 4 was probably the kitchen. No. 3 seems to have communicated with the court by a door in the north-west corner. Parallel to it lies the vaulted lîwân, No. 5, 4·90 metres wide (Plate 50, Figs, 1 and 2). At its southern end a door, placed in a wide and shallow niche, opens into No. 6. No. 6 communicates both with No. 4 and with the long, partially ruined hall, No. 7. The doorway between 6 and 7, 2·05 metres wide (the arch has broken away), is placed within a niche 1·45 metres deep which is covered by the segment of a semi-dome (Plate 51, Fig. 2). The semi-dome is laid across the angles by means of masonry brackets which must have borne a very strong resemblance to pendentives. The horizontal courses are carried up in the centre of the semi-dome for three courses, each shorter than the one below, and round this pyramidal core the brickwork of the semi-dome is laid concentrically.[43] To the south, the door niche is carried back beyond the width of the semi-dome, forming a small vaulted recess. No. 7 seems to have been provided with a door opening on to the court, but the western end of the north wall is completely ruined. A very narrow door under the semi-dome gave access to room 8, which could also be approached from the court by an arched door in the west wall (Plate 52, Fig. 1). No. 8, 2·90 by 5·75 metres, lies parallel to No. 7, and is roofed with a barrel vault. In the west wall, north of the door, there is an arched niche, ·54 metre deep, and a similar niche is placed in the north wall.