In the heart of the Nasirid palaces in Alhambra, is the Court of the Lions (Patio de los Leones). It is described in guide books as the most sublime testament to Nasrid art, and truly here, architecture becomes poetry and geometry meets grace.
Built in the 14th century under Sultan Muhammad V, this courtyard was the zenith of Islamic architecture in al-Andalus.
One enters through a hall with the most exquisite stucco work supported slender columns.
In fact a delicate arcade of 124 slender marble columns, surrounds a white marble fountain held aloft by twelve lions, each one slightly different, as if caught in motion, guarding time itself.
The Islamic concept of water as a sacred, divine mercy was introduced into architecture based on descriptions in the Quran into Spain by the Umayyads and later Muslim kings.
This courtyard takes it further as it was designed on the same principles as a
microcosm of paradise, a space where the murmur of water, the play of light, and the symmetry of design bring the divine into the earthly realm. The lions, though seemingly at odds with Islamic aniconism, symbolized strength, sovereignty, and the fusion of cultural motifs from East and West, including Jewish and Christian influences.
As per the charbagh concept there are four narrow rills, representing the 4 rivers of paradise surrounding the 12 sided basin.
The fountain’s hydraulic design was an engineering marvel of its time.
Poets once described this court as “a pearl set in emeralds,” and indeed, it is a place where poetry, politics, and paradise meet—where the dream of Al-Andalus still lingers in stone and silence.
The fountain basin in the Court of the Lions (Alhambra, Granada) features an Arabic poem by Ibn Zamrak, the vizier and court poet of Sultan Muhammad V in the 14th century.
“…Can you not see how the water flows into the basin,
But it is hidden immediately by its pipes?
It is like a lover whose eyelids overflow with tears,
Tears that hide for fear of betrayal…”
Ibn Zamrak
(translated by D. Cabanelas and A. Fernández Puertas)
