From a recent travel story in The New York Times on a visit to Fez, Morocco.
``In the 14-th century Sahrij medersa, one of Fez's many artfully constructed Koranic schools, Alami approaches the dazzling mosaics on the walls and runs his finger along the design like a literary scholar reading poetry. Each of the five tile colours, he says, was purposely chosen:
``Blue is the sky, white is purity, black is depth, yellow is wealth, green is Islam.''