A Garden For The Sultan Gardens and Flowers in the Ottoman Culture

The lover who experienced this blossoming of eternal rose in himself understands that the gardens of this world are only a lovely pretext for the Beloved to veil and unveil Himself at the same time. The hidden treasure of his beauty needs the garden to become visible to those who are still bound to sensible and tangible beauty. The eye of love sees behind the roses and trees, in the shade of the slender cypress and in the modest genuflection of the little violet, in the limpid water of basins and in the gushing fountains faint remembrances of the garden of Paradise with its Tuba tree, kauthar and salsabil; a Paradise which is, in turn, only a sensual symbol of God's everlasting beauty.