Thirteenth. The station of the South-East gate (Kiblah kapú-sí). This gate being made of the wood of Noah’s ark, all merchants who travel by sea, and sailors, are accustomed to offer up a prayer, accompanied by two inclinations of the body, and touch the wood with their hands, saying a Fátihah (i.e. the first chapter of the Korán) for the rest of Noah’s soul before they set sail.
Virtues of the Golden Ball.
If any man have a bad memory which he wishes to improve, he should place himself beneath the Golden Ball suspended in the middle of the cupola, and say the morning prayer seven times; three times repeat the words Allahumma Yá káshifo-l mushkilát Yá ’álimu-s-sir va-l khafiyyát (i.e. O God who openest all difficult things and knowest all secret and hidden things), and each time eat seven black grapes, and then whatever he hears will remain fixed in his memory as if engraven on stone. A most noted example of this was Hamdí Chelebí, son of Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, who lived in the village of Turbahlí Góïnuk. He was so foolish and forgetful, that if any one gave him the Selám he was obliged to write the word Selám on a piece of paper and read it before he could comprehend that he ought to answer ‘Ve aleïkum es-selám.’ No doctors could do him any good, so that at last he was completely a prey to forgetfulness, till he went, by Ak-Shemsu-d-dín’s advice, to Ayá Sófiyah, where, after saying the requisite prayers, and eating the grapes as prescribed above, beneath the Golden Ball, he was so completely cured of his stupidity, that he began immediately to compose his poem of Yusuf and Zuleïkhá, which he finished in seven months; after which he wrote his Kiyáfet-námeh (Treatise on Physiognomy), which is known all over the world as a wonderful poem on the nature of the Sons of Adam.
Fourteenth. The station of the cool window, on the south-east side (Kibleh) of Ayá Sófiyah, on the inner side of the Imperial Gate, is a window opening to the north, where fragrant breezes and songs of the nightingales from the garden outside refresh the soul. It is there that Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, immediately after the conquests, delivered his Lectures on Joreïri’s Commentary on the Korán; and having prayed that all students who pursued their studies there should be blessed with success, that spot has ever since been a delightful place. It was there also that our instructor, the Sheïkh of Sheïkhs, Evliyá Efendí, that master of the art of reading the Korán, delivered his lectures on that science to some thousands of hearers.
Fifteenth. The station of the Lord Jesus’s cradle, in a corner on the eastern side of the upper gallery, is a hollow trough of reddish marble like a cradle, where the Christian women used to place their children when sick in order to obtain their recovery.
Sixteenth. The station of the Washing Place of the Lord Jesus. Near the cradle just mentioned above, there is another square trough of stone, where the Prophet Jesus was washed immediately after he was delivered from the womb of his mother Meryem. Kostantín the Ancient, mentioned above, is said to have brought both the cradle and the font from Beïtu-l-lahm to the south of Kudsi Sheríf, but the humble writer of these lines saw the washing-trough of Jesus at Beïtu-l-lahm. That children who are crooked and sickly, when washed in the trough in Ayá Sófiyah immediately become straight and healthy, as if revived by the breath of Jesus, is known to all the world.
Seventeenth. The station of the Gate of the Seven. On the east side of the upper gallery there is a large door, the folds of which are not of wood, but of white marble adorned with sculpture. It is visited and admired by all travellers and architects as not having its fellow on the face of the earth. It is a favourite place of worship.
The Spectacle of the resplendent Stones.
On the east side of the upper gallery there are five or six smooth flat slabs of various coloured stones, which reflect the rays of the rising sun with so bright a light that the eye of man cannot look stedfastly on them. In short, there are some thousands of holy places of pilgrimage in Ayá Sófiyah, which is a Ka’beh for Fakírs, but the writer of these pages has only described those which he knew. The whole of this mosque is also covered with lead, which has remained uninjured for so many thousand years from its being mixed up with some thousand quintals (kantár) of gold. All architects are lost in astonishment at the solidity of the foundations of this vast building, and no tongue or pen is capable of adequately describing it. We have seen the mosques of all the world; but never one like this. Mohammed the Conqueror, after having repaired this mosque, also repaired that called Little Ayá Sófiyah, near the Kadirghah límání (galley harbour), which had been previously a church built by Elínah, mother of Kostantín.