The general arrangement of the buildings which compose the palace is exceedingly simple. The courts, for instance, which in our mansions are dull and uninteresting, are here so planned, as to seem a continuation of a series of apartments; and as the whole is on the same level throughout, the prospect through the building, in its perfect state, must have been like a scene of enchantment or a dream; halls and galleries, porticoes and columns, arches, mosaics, with plants and flowers of various hues, being seen in various extensive views, through the haze arising from the spray of the fountains. In every part of the palace its inmates had water in abundance, with a perfect command over it, making it high, low, visible, or invisible, at pleasure. In every department two currents of air were continually in motion. Also, by means of tubes of baked earth placed in the walls, warmth was diffused from subterranean furnaces; not only through the whole range of the baths, but to all the contiguous upper apartments where warmth was required. The doors were large, but rather sparingly introduced; and, except on the side towards the precipice, where the prospect is very grand, the windows are so placed as to confine the view to the interior of the palace. The object of this is declared in an inscription in one of the apartments, which says--"My windows admit the light, but exclude the view of external objects, lest the beauties of Nature should divert attention from the beauties of my work." In this mansion the elaborate arabesques and mosaics which cover the ceilings, walls, and floor, give a consequence and interest even to the smallest apartment. Instead of being papered and wainscoted, the walls are provided with the peculiar ornament which, from the Arabs, has been denominated "arabesque." The receding ornaments are illuminated in just gradation with leaf-gold, pink, light blue, and dusky purple: the first colour is the nearest, the last is the most distant, from the eye; but the general surface is white. The domes and arcades are also covered with ornamented casts, which are as light as wood, and as durable as marble. Besides the inscriptions above alluded to, there are various others. In the king's bath, and in various other parts of the Alhambra, is, "There is no conqueror but God;" and "Glory to our Lord, Sultan Ab[=u] Abdall[=a]h!" Over the principal door of the golden saloon, or hall of ambassadors: "By the sun and its rising brightness; by the moon, when she followeth him; by the day, when he showeth his splendour; by the night, when it covereth him into darkness; by the heaven, and Him who created it; by the earth, and Him who spread it forth; by the soul, and Him who completely formed it: there is no other God but God."