section, now in Berlin's Pergamon Museum, shows attendants as well as a boat in waters abundant with fish and fowl.
An image known as the "six kings" depicts the caliph with other regional rulers. Its intent was unclear until conservators in the late 1970s discovered the Greek word "NHKH", or nike, meaning victory, nearby. It was concluded that the "six kings" image was meant to suggest the caliph's supremacy over his enemies.
The apodyterium, or changing room, is decorated with scenes of animals engaging in human activities, particularly performing music. One ambiguous image has an angel gazing down on a shrouded human form. It has often been thought to be a death scene, but some other interpretations have suggested the shroud covers a pair of lovers. Three blackened faces on the ceiling have been thought to represent the stages of life. Christians in the area believe the middle figure is Jesus Christ.
On the walls and ceiling of the tepidarium, or warm bath, are scenes of plants and trees similar to those in the mosaic at theUmayyad Mosque in Damascus. They are interspersed with naked females in various poses, some bathing a child. The caldariumor hot bath's hemispheric dome has a representation of the heavens in which the zodiac is depicted, among 35 separate identifiableconstellations.
It is believed to be the earliest image of the night sky painted on anything other than a flat surface. The radii emerge not from the dome's center but, accurately, from the north celestial pole. The angle of the zodiac is depicted accurately as well. The only error discernible in the surviving artwork is the counterclockwise order of the stars, which suggests the image was copied from one on a flat surface.
The frescoes in all rooms but the caldarium reflect the advice of contemporary Arab physicians. They believed that baths drained the spirits of the bathers, and that to revive "the three vital principles in the body, the animal, the
