text: " The palace of Az-zahra where the eyes of the Greeks were dazzled by this costly pageant is one of the familiar names of the romance of Spanish history:--it is known to all the world how Abdurrahman to gratify the capricious fancy of a beautiful and beloved mistress expended millions and tasked the labour of thousands in erecting on the plain beyond Cordova a fairy palace and city which might bear her name and be her own