By noon Carter reached the jasper terraces of Kiran which slope down to the river's edge and bear that temple of loveliness wherein the King of Ilk-Vad comes from his far realm on the twilight sea once a year in a golden palanquin to pray to the god of Outranks, who sang to him in youth when he dwelt in a cottage by its banks. All jasper is that temple, and covering an acre of ground with its walls and courts, its seven pinnacle towers, and its inner shrine where the river enters through hidden channels and the god sings softly in the night. Many times the moon hears strange music as it shines on those courts and terraces and pinnacles, but whether that music is the song of the god or the chant of the critical priests, none but the King of Ilk-Vad may say; for only he had entered the temple or seen the priests. Now, in the drowsiness of day, that carved and delicate fine was silent, and Carter heard only the murmur of the great stream and the hum of the birds and bees as he walked onward under the enchanted sun.

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath