noon
And many were found wanting . But of those that were able to say acceptable things , ever after to be named The Fortunate , one said that to the South of the Earth lay a Land -- said Land was crowned with lotus -- where it was summer in our winter days and where it was winter in summer . And when the Sultan of those most distant lands knew that the Creator of All had contrived a device so vastly to his delight his merriment knew no bounds . On a sudden he spake and said , and this was the gist of his saying , that upon that line of boundary or limit that divided the North from the South a palace be made , where in the Northern courts should summer be , while in the South was winter ; so should he move from court to court according to his mood , and dally with the summer in the morning and spend the noon with snow . So the Sultan 's poets were sent for and bade to tell of that city , foreseeing its splendour far away to the South and in the future of time ; and some were found fortunate . And of those that were found fortunate and were crowned with flowers none earned more easily the Sultan 's smile -LRB- on which long days depended -RRB- than he that foreseeing the city spake of it thus : `` In seven years and seven days , O Prop of Heaven , shall thy builders build it , thy palace that is neither North nor South , where neither summer nor winter is sole lord of the hours . White I see it , very vast , as a city , very fair , as a woman , Earth 's wonder , with many windows , with thy princesses peering out at twilight ; yea , I behold the bliss of the gold balconies , and hear a rustling down long galleries and the doves ' coo upon its sculptured eaves .