The throne was to be three gaz (six feet) in length, two and a half gaz (five feet) in breadth, and five gaz (ten feet) in height, and was to be set with the jewels already mentioned. The outside of the canopy was to be of enamel work with occasional gems, the inside was to be thickly set with rubies, garnets, and other jewels, and it was to be supported by twelve emerald columns. On the top of each pillar there were to be two peacocks thickly set with gems, and between each two peacocks was to be a tree studded with rubies, diamonds, emeralds, and pearls.* The ascent was to consist of three steps set with jewels of fine water.*
This throne was completed in the course of seven years at a cost of ten million rupees (over £1,100,000).
* Lahori’s language here suggests that he was recalling original plans as well as describing the finished throne. He speaks of two peacocks for each of twelve pillars. French jeweller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) noticed only one peacock (though an accompanying drawing showed two) for the whole throne. French physician and traveller François Bernier (1620-1688) stated that two peacocks — whether there were more than these he does not make clear — were executed by an unnamed but gifted French jeweller, who had drifted to the Imperial court after he was detected in an ambitious imitation jewellery racket.
* The term ‘water’ is used to refer to the water-like clarity of a fine gem. To describe something as ‘of the first water’ is to imply that it is pure. “This was manifestly a prig of the first water,” Jonathan Harker confides to his journal in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), “and there was no use arguing with him.”