We began to wander through the mosque again, observing here and there on the walls the arabesques of the ancient doorways which are now and then discovered under the detestable plaster of the Christians. My companions looked at me, laughed, and whispered something to each other. "Have you not seen it yet?" one of them asked me.
"What do you mean?"
They looked at me again and smiled.
"You think you have seen all the mosque, do you?" continued my companion.
"Yes, indeed," I replied, looking around.
"Well," said the first, "you have not seen it all, and what remains to be seen is nothing less than a church."
"A church?" I exclaimed stupefied, "but where is it?"
"Look!" answered my other companion, pointing; "it is in the very centre of the mosque."
"By the powers!" And I had not seen it!
From this one may judge of the vastness of the mosque.