In the geography of Edrisi, an Oriental author who describes Spain in the beginning of the 12th century, only two names of towns are mentioned which agree with this inscription, Coria and Cuenca [Illustration: Arabic]. The first of these towns was always a less important centre than Cuenca. Edrisi praises the woollen fabrics made at Cuenca, and there is every probability that this casket was carved there, as there is also an ivory monstrance at the cathedral of Perpiñan, which has likewise an inscription in Cufic characters, stating it was made for the Hageb Ismail. [Illustration: Arabic] "The blessing of God. Made at the town of Cuenca, for the Hageb Ismail." Villanueva in his "Viage por España," Vol. 5, p. 144, mentions two large ivory caskets with Cufic inscriptions which still exist at the cathedral of Tortosa, Cataluña. Another of a similar description is preserved in the Treasury of the cathedral of Bayeux. This casket is, as M. André tells us in a pamphlet on "Antiquites Arabes de la Normandie," Rennes, 1869, O^{m} 42 L. by O^{m} 28 W. and 13 H. It is decorated with bands of enamelled metal, and covered with a fine running design of peacocks and other birds. Round the lock runs the following inscription in Cufic characters: [Illustration: Arabic] "In the name of God, clement, merciful, the blessing and His benefits complete." These ivory caskets were made originally to hold perfumes, jewels, or precious stones. For besides the Arabic inscriptions which allude to this, we find the idea distinctly expressed in an inscription in Cufic letters on a casket which came from Cordova belonging to the Caliphate. This casket was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1867; I do not know where it is at present. It appears at first sight difficult to explain why the Spanish Moors decorated these objects with the representations of animated beings, against the precepts of the Koran, and the reason why these objects of undoubtedly Moorish origin have been preserved until the present day in the treasuries of Spanish cathedrals. The prohibition of the Koran to represent animated beings is, however, not so strict as is generally supposed; it is reduced to the following sentences. "O Believers! Wine and games of chance, and statues and the divining arrows, are only an abomination of Satan's work! Avoid them that ye may prosper." [Sura v. ver. 22.] Later commentators on the Koran have added the severest prohibitions against painters and artists who represented animated beings, but to very little effect, and we find in contemporary authors numerous details of the specimens of sculptures and paintings which were in the houses of Moorish magnates. Coins, textile fabrics, furniture, and other objects which have reached us, leave no doubt that the representations of animated beings were constantly used by the Spanish and Eastern Arabs from the first century of the Hegira.