“Thus the four great arches were built; and when they had been raised to the level of the dome (_troulos_), on the completion of every twelfth course, prayers were uttered for the church, and relics of the saints built in. Thus arose the building; it was then adorned with marble and covered with mosaic. And into the piers, arcades, and larger columns they placed relics of the saints. And when the marble plating had been finished, they applied gold to the margins of the slabs, and to the capitals of the columns. And the carved work, and the ornaments of the upper galleries, both of the parts with two stories, and with three (_diorophoi_ and _triorophoi_), were all covered with pure gold. The thickness of the gold plating (_petalos_) was two inches.[225] “But all the vaults (_orophoi_) of the upper galleries, of the parts with two stories on the sides, and the vaulting of the nave, and of the parts adjacent, and of the four nartheces, he gilded with glass mosaic. He gilded even the proaulia, with their upper chambers, and columns, and marble slabs. “The floor of the nave was adorned with various marbles, both with the Roman of a rue-green colour and others of a rosy red; and these were all laid down and polished. The walls outside and all round were covered with large and valuable stones. “The thysiasterium was of shining silver, the barrier (_stethea_), and its large columns, with the doors, were all of silver. All the silver was dipped in gold. Four tables were set up in the thysiasterium supported on columns, and these were gilt. The seven seats of the priests, on which they sat on either side, with the throne of the patriarch, and the four columns, were all gilded. And it was forbidden to go up into the holy place, the _Kuklios_, also called the Holy of Holies, which is above the steps. “He set up also large columns of silver-gilt, and the lilies with the ciborium. And the ciborium he made with silver and nielloed (_arguroencauston_). Above the ciborium was a globe of solid gold, weighing 118 pounds, and golden lilies, weighing six pounds, and above them a golden cross, with most precious and rare stones, weighing eighty pounds. Such was the design he made.