The mosaics at Ravenna show veils hanging at the door of the church through which Theodora is about to enter, and the large elevation of the Palace of Theodoric, likewise in mosaic, shows hangings in all the arches of the portico. Such textiles suspended at entrance doorways are often mentioned by contemporary authors.[148] At S. Sophia the doors entering the narthex, and those between it and the church, all have bronze hooks, to which such “door veils” were suspended; and embroidered Turkish hangings, which roll up from the bottom by means of cords and pulleys, are still hung to them. In the Byzantine mosaics the hangings are often shown raised by being gathered into a loose knot, or by being drawn to the sides and passed once round the pillars between which they hang. [Illustration: FIG. 12.--Vessels of Sixth Century: from Ivory Throne, Ravenna.] The account of the coronation ceremony describes how the royal persons were seated in the gynaeceum, screened by “golden velothyra,” so that they should not be seen until the psaltae sang the “Lift up,” when immediately the velothyra were raised. Of these hangings in the interior we have a picture in the account given in the continuation of Theophanes of an ambassador, Iber Curopalates, who visited Constantinople in 923, and “was taken to the church of S. Sophia, that he should inspect its beauty and size and precious ornaments. Now the walls were all draped with cloth of gold before they led him in, and he, struck with the great size of the church and its wealth of adornment, exclaimed, ‘Truly this is the house of God,’ and returned home.”[149] The _Ceremonies_ mention gold hangings in Catechumena above Royal Door.[150] Nicetas tells us how the Crusaders “spared neither the house of God nor His ministers, but stripped the great church of all its fine ornaments and hangings, made of the richest brocades of inestimable value.” We have no doubt that S. Sophia was frequently adorned inside by the arcades of both tiers having hangings suspended from the iron bars, which cross all these arches at their springing, exactly like those shown in the mosaic of Theodoric’s palace. Indeed Ignatius of Smolensk (_circ._ 1395), who was present at the coronation of Manuel, says that the women in the galleries remained behind curtains of silk so that none might see their faces.[151]