French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavenier was both dazzled and astounded by Shah Jahan's Peacock Throne. According to him it was six feet long and four feet wide. Four solid gold rods supported the base and twelve bars of gold rose up on three sides to support a canopy. The bars and rods were encrusted with large rubies and emeralds and the intervals between them were covered in diamonds and pearls. There were more than one hundred rubies, and the same number of emeralds. The underside of the throne was covered with pearls and diamonds, and the canopy was framed with a fringe of pearls. A peacock rose above the canopy, its gold body inlaid with a variety of precious stones, its tail composed predominantly of blue sapphires. An enormous ruby sat in its breast and from the ruby dangled a large pearl of about 50 carats. Fronds of golden flowers, again studded with precious stones, flanked the peacock. I can well understand Tavernier's stunned reaction. I saw the remains of the Peacock Throne when on a visit to Teheran to research the Indo-Persian links in Moghul cooking and was equally struck by its magnificence.

Even though the last of the Great Moghuls, Aurangzeb, was himself much more austere, lavish entertainments at court were still held for his large entourage and the expenses of running the Palace were extraordinary.

Foreign travellers to both Persia and the Moghul courts have left their impressions of the lavish banquets and the types of dishes served. Manrique, Bernier, Manucci, Roe, Hawkins and Monserrate all wrote of their experiences in the land of the Moghuls.