The palaces are arranged to form a

The palaces are arranged to form a dense network of rooms, mediated by airy gardens with pools of water. Water was symbolically important as a signifier of luxury, but it was also connected to both physical and spiritual benefits. The Court of the Lions is much more formal in its layout than the adjacent Palace of Comares. In it, four channels of
water, representing the four rivers of Paradise declared in the Koran, extend near-cardinally within the columnar portico surrounding the courtyard and into the palace itself on two
sides. The lions, which gives the palace its name, likely come from an earlier palace built on this site and have been inferred by some to demonstrate an intentional
recreation of the Temple of Solomon.