secular sphere, and associate luxury goods with courtly culture devoid of
religion.^47
The Quran underscores the importance of nature as an adornment
(zukhruf) of earth through which humanity becomes able to appreciate
God (Q10:24). Yet the term also serves as a warning against extensive
luxury (Q43:33–35). As the word moved beyond its Quranic usage, it came
to be used for painted adornment, beautiful but deceptive words, the colors
of plants, and the full beauty of a thing.^48 For example, Jafer Agha,
biographer of the Ottoman architect Mehmet Agha (1540–1617), justifies
the embellishment of the Kaaba with the following quatrain:
Although there is a world in the face of the beloved,
There is another world in the garment of the desired one.
Beauties are glorified by sumptuous and ornamented garments.
They wish to reveal themselves in a different mode.^49
Jafer transforms gold from extravagance into sumptuous adornment of the
divine. Sensory pleasures inform love of the divine because transcendence
requires materiality.
The importance of adornment is perhaps nowhere more explicit than in
the Quran’s description of King Solomon using his palatial raiment to
display his wisdom and convert Bilqis:
And [We subjected] the wind for Solomon. Its outward journey took a month, and
its return journey likewise. We made a fountain of molten brassflow for him, and
some of the jinn worked under his control with his Lord’s permission. If one of
them deviated from Our command, We let him taste the suffering of the blazing
flame. They made him whatever he wanted–palaces, statues, basins as large as
water troughs,fixed cauldrons. (Q34: 12–13)^50
This palace serves as a parable using the transcendence of misrecognition
as a metaphor for the recognition of truth beyond visuality. King Solomon
invites the heliolatrous Bilqis to his court, modeled as a garden and thus a
metaphor for heaven. She must traverse a threshold paved with glass over
water in whichfish swim. Fooled by the glass, she lifts her skirt to wade
barefoot into the water. She discovers that she has been unable to see truth
because of the misrepresentation of her own visual perception, which has
similarly deceived her into being dazzled by the sun rather than worshiping
(^47) Shaw, 2012 :6. (^48) Vilchez, 2017 :61–62. (^49) Crane, 1987 : 55.
(^50) Abdel-Haleem, 2004 : 273.
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