Roberts, David; Croly, George: The Holy Land: Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (Band 6): = Egypt & Nubia [3] (1849)

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This mosque is situated in the main line of the street leading to the Bab en Nasr. There are great
symmetry and beauty in its minaret,— characters almost common to those elegant structures, though
this mosque is not one much distinguished among the four hundred that, it is said, Cairo contains.
It is surmounted by a bronze crescent, and the props, often decayed and unsafe, from which lamps
are suspended during the feast of Rhamadan. A flight of steps, seen on the right, leads up to the
porch of the principal entrance, above which lamps are placed.

The narrow streets, thus overhung by the houses on either side, are darkened but cooled by such
exclusion of the sun's rays; yet those objects of beauty, the minarets of the mosques, frequently
burst upon the eye of the observer as they rise above the buildings, and strikingly characterise the
architecture of Cairo.