Its building is said to have cost 750,000 pounds.

Properly speaking, the sultan's memory is more perpetuated by this building than that of his favourite, for every one who saw it would involuntarily ask who erected it.

The names of the architect and builder are unfortunately lost.

Many ascribe it to Italian masters; but when it is seen that there are so many other admirable works of Mahomedan architecture, either the whole must be considered foreign or this must be admitted to be native.
The monument stands in the centre of a garden, upon an open terrace of red sandstone, raised twelve feet above the ground.

It represents a mosque of an octagon form, with lofty arched entrances, which, together with the four minarets that stand at the corners of the terrace, is entirely built of white marble.