A yellow central medallion ringed with pointed pendants floats on a deep blue field of scrolling tendrils and blossoms, with a mosque lamp hanging from each end of the medallion. Woven with about 26 million knots under Shah Tahmasp, it is thought to carry the earliest date on any Persian carpet. A dealer rebuilt it in the 1890s using pieces of its damaged twin.
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At one end a cartouche holds a couplet by Hafiz, the words 'the work of the servant of the threshold, Maqsud Kashani', and the date 946 (1539–40). The two lamps differ in size.
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