"O true believers, verily the idolaters are unclean; let them not therefore come near unto the holy temple after this year. "And if ye fear want, by the cutting off trade, and communication with them, God will enrich you of his abundance, if he pleaseth; for God is knowing and wise." "It is not fitting that the idolaters should visit the temples of God, being witnesses against their own souls of their infidelity." Considering the resources which have contributed to construct and adorn this shrine of the Mohammedan faith, the great wealth of many nations, and the centuries which have successively rolled on, each adding the superstitious offerings of religious votaries, it is no wonder that it is magnificent to behold. The model from Paradise, the rebuilding by Abram, and its preservation for so many years. The whole city of Mecca is considered holy ground but the objects of special adoration are inclosed within a magnificent colonnade, the foundation of which was laid by the second caliph Omer, to prevent intrusion upon the sanctum sanctorum. The space inclosed by this portico is about seven statium. The foundations are broad and lofty, and approached by an extended flight of marble steps, on both sides, without and within. No less than four hundred and eighty-four columns support an arched entablature, which is crowned by a succession of domes, surmounted by glittering crescents. The colonnade is quadrangular, and in the four corners are minarés, raising their tapering spires to heaven, in emblem of the ascending orisons of the faithful, and from whose gilded galleries the sacred imams have, since unnumbered suns have risen and set, proclaimed the hours of adoration. No gloomy darkness ever enshrouds this structure; for when day withdraws its more glaring brightness, innumerable lamps cast their fitful light around the pillars. What tales could these marble columns whisper of human hopes, and even holier aspirations; of the wicked schemes of intriguing imams, as with sacerdotal robes and turbans of emerald hue, they traced their cautious way from pillar to pillar, and received and blessed the vast concourse of souls, borne down with the ills and sins of humanity. How honeyed their benedictions as they lay their gilded palms on the humble suppliant, who would gladly bestow all his earthly treasures for a sure hope of heaven where his joys would be enduring. Poor weak mortals! tools of each other, and victims of the calculating; the deceiver and deceived, on the same journey, on the same race course, where the goal is Eternity! Beneath these domes, and overshadowed by these tall minarés, the poet and the scholar have met to repeat the traditions and romances so peculiar to the glowing imaginations of the Oriental world, and to vie with each other for literary fame; the astrologer and diviner, no doubt the very genii and fairies of Arabian myth, have mingled in the throng.