I then opened the third door, where I discovered a very large aviary. It was paved with different coloured marbles, of the finest and least common sort. The cages were of sandal-wood and aloes; and contained a great number of nightingales, goldfinches, canaries, larks, and other birds, whose notes were sweeter and more melodious than any I had ever heard before. The vases which contained their food and water, were of jaspar or the most valuable agate. This aviary also was kept with the greatest degree of neatness; and from its vast extent I conceive that it would employ not less than a hundred persons to keep it in the state it then was; and yet no one appeared either here or in the other gardens, in none of which did I observe a single weed that was noxious, nor the least superfluous thing that could offend the sight. The sun was already set, and I retired much delighted with the warbling of the multitude of birds, which were then flying about to find the most commodious place to perch and enjoy the repose of the night. I went back to my apartment, and determined to open all the other doors on the succeeding days, except the hundredth. The next day I did not fail to go to the fourth door and open it. But if that which I had seen on the foregoing days was capable of surprising me, what I now beheld put me in ecstacy. I first entered into a large court, surrounded by a building of a very singular sort of architecture, of which, to avoid being very prolix, I will not give you a description. This building had forty doors, all open: each of which was an entrance into a sort of treasury, containing more riches than many kingdoms. The first contained large quantities of pearls, and what is almost incredible, the most valuable, which were as large as pigeons’ eggs, were more numerous than the smaller. The second was filled with diamonds, carbuncles, and rubies; the third with emeralds; the fourth contained gold in ingots; the fifth gold in money; the sixth ingots of silver; and the two following silver money. The rest were filled with amethists, chrysolites, topazes, opals, turquoises, hyacinths, and every other sort of precious stone we are acquainted with; not to mention agate, jaspar, cornelian, and coral, both in branches and whole trees, with which one apartment was entirely filled. Struck with surprise and admiration at the sight of all these riches, I exclaimed, “It is impossible that all the treasures of every potentate in the universe, if they were collected in the same spot, can equal these! How happy am I in possessing all these treasures as well as such amiable princesses!”