About Precious Stones and the Gothic Treasury

When the Gothic treasury, after the conquest of Spain, was plundered by the Arabs, they admired another object still more remarkable--a table of considerable size, of one single piece of solid emerald, enriched with three rows of fine pearls, supported by three hundred and sixty-five feet of gems and massy gold, and estimated at the price of five hundred thousand pieces of gold. It was called the table of Solomon by the Orientals, who ascribed to that king every ancient work of knowledge and magnificence. It is believed that the stupendous pieces of what was called "emerald"--the statues and columns which antiquity has placed in Egypt, at Gades, and Constantinople--were, in reality, artificial compositions of coloured glass. The famous "emerald" dish at Genoa is supposed to countenance the supposition.