This gorgeous pile owes its existence to a favourite of the Khalifa An Nasir, who at her death directed that her immense wealth should be employed in ransoming Moslem prisoners in the clutch of the Christian. The bereaved potentate sent east, west, north and south in order to execute this pious request, only to find to his joy that no such thing as a Moslem captive was anywhere to be found. The happy thought then came to him to expend the money on the erection of a palace to be named after a new favourite, Zahara, whose name it should perpetuate, and in whose society he might hope to forget the deceased. This seems to us a somewhat queer application of the legacy. The work occupied ten thousand men daily for many years, and cost during An Nasir's reign alone seven and a half millions of dineros or pieces of gold. [Illustration: CORDOVA--A STREET SCENE] The palace seems to have excited, as well it might, the cupidity of neighbouring monarchs. Alfonso VI., the conqueror of Toledo, demanded it of the Amir Al Mutamed, as a residence for his queen, Doña Constancia, whose accouchement he suggested might take place in the mosque. It was the Moor's rejection of this original proposal that led to hostilities, and threw the Spanish Moslems into the arms of the terrible Almorávides. Those fierce sectaries seem to have entirely neglected Az Zahara, and under the puritanical Almohades we can easily imagine it would be suffered to decay. How little was left of it when Ferdinand took the place is shown by his referring to it merely as Cordova la Vieja (Old Cordova).