The Metatorion, frequently spoken of together with the Holy Well, Labarte and Paspates place on the south side, external to the church. We think it was probably the name of portions of the side-aisles screened off by curtains. This would agree with Unger,[133] who thinks that the word means a “quarter of the church” (_metatio_), and that Du Cange was mistaken in deriving it from _mutatorium_. In the _Ceremonies_,--“The princes go out of the right side of the bema and enter the metatorion.” Again, the patriarch stands within the iconostasis “on the right-hand side of the bema, towards the metatorion.” From the metatorion a small door led to the Holy Well. Again, “they leave the bema by the right-hand side through the small holy door (in iconostasis) and proceed to the porphyry columns (of exedra), and by the staircase of the metatorion they enter the catechumena.”[134] Again, “the emperor takes off his crown in the metatorion within the Beautiful Gate,” and “within the veil, hanging in the metatorion at the back of the narthex door.” Metatoria in the catechumena of S. Sophia and of S. Sergius are also referred to.[135] _Solea._--The later writers often mention the solea of S. Sophia. Thus Cantacuzenus speaks of the emperor passing through the solea up to the “Holy Doors.”[136] It was immediately outside the iconostasis, and must have closely agreed with the choir of the singers in a Western church. Paulus does not use the word, but he describes the singers as occupying the space in front of the Holy Doors, and embraced by the exedras. The ambo, with its long passage of approach from the step of the Holy Doors, divided this space in two, so it is clear that the singers stood on either side of the ambo. The portion round about the ambo screened by the circle of columns was reserved for the leaders of the choir, the Protopsaltae.[137] We cannot infer from the Silentiary that there was any other screen to the Solea, and no stalls for the singers are mentioned. It is possible that in the tenth century, when the _Book of the Ceremonies_ was written, the ambo had been modified at least in regard to the approach from the bema, and that a considerable space was interposed between it and the Holy Doors, in front of which there was at this time a porphyry omphalion stone (see our page 96). Paspates[138] says this is still quite intact, somewhat oval in shape, seven feet across, and adorned with a mosaic of marbles. It seems probable from the Anonymous that in these later days the solea was inclosed by a screen which he says was of silver.[139]