[2] The style of ornamentation of the Aljafería, such as the use of mixtilinear arches and springers, the extension of arabesques over a large area, and the schematisation and progressive abstraction of the yeserias of a vegetal nature, strongly influenced Almoravid and Almohad art in the Iberian Peninsula.

[3] Its lower part has vestiges of the beginning of the heavy walls of alabaster ashlar bond masonry, and continues upwards with a plank lining of simple plaster and lime concrete, a lighter substance for reaching greater heights.

It was later integrated by the Banu Hud family in the construction of the castle-palace of the Aljafería, constituting one of the towers of the defensive framework of the outside north wall.

The general layout of the palace follows the archetype of desert castles in Syria and Jordan from the first half of the 8th century (such as Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi,[5] Msatta, Khirbat al-Mafjar, and, from the early Abbasid era, the al-Ukhaidir Fortress).

It is the central rectangle that houses the palatial buildings, organized around a courtyard with cisterns in front of the north and south porticos containing the royal rooms and saloons.

The north end was more important, as it was endowed with a second floor and greater depth, and was preceded by an open and profusely decorated column wall that stretched across two pavilions on its flanks and served as a theatrical porch to the throne room (the "golden hall" of the verses of Al-Muqtadir).

All this, reflected also in the cistern, enhanced the royal area, which is corroborated by the presence at the eastern end of the northern border of a small private mosque with a mihrab.

In the center of the northern wall of the interior of the Golden Hall was a blind arch – where the king stood – with a traditional geometric pattern imitating the latticework of the mihrab façade of the Mosque of Córdoba, the building which it sought to emulate.

The various changes to the Aljafería have removed many of the 11th century stuccos and, with the construction of the palace of the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, the entire second floor, which broke the ends of the Taifal arches.

Along the north wall is the most important complex of buildings built in the Banu Hud period, including the Throne Room or Golden Hall and the small private mosque, located on the eastern side of the access portico that serves as an antechamber to the oratory.

Most of the arabesque yeserias that covered the walls, as well as an alabaster base two and a half metres high and the white marble floors of the original palace, have been lost.

Ceilings and wood carvings reproduced the sky, and the whole room was an image of the cosmos, clothed with symbols of the power exercised over the celestial universe by the monarch of Saragossa, who thus appeared as heir to the caliphs.

The very large central opening consists of five double marble columns with stylized Islamic alabaster capitals that support four mixtilinear arches, between which are other simpler horseshoe shapes.

Among the filigrees is the representation of a bird, an unusual zoomorphic figure in Islamic art that could represent a pigeon, a pheasant, or a symbol of the king as winged being.

[6] It is accessed through a portal that ends in a horseshoe arch inspired by the Mosque of Córdoba but with S-shaped springers, a novelty that imitated Almoravid and Nasrid art.

This gallery is the only one that preserves remains of the pictorial decoration of the 11th century, whose motifs were rescued by Francisco Íñiguez Almech when removing the liming that covered the walls after conversion to a chapel.

This portico was the vestibule of a great south hall that would have had the same tripartite composition as exists in the north side, and of which only the arcades of access of mixtilineal arches of geometric decoration remains.

The Chapel of San Martín incorporates the sides of the northwest corner of the wall, to the point that one of its towers was used as sacristy and gave its name to the courtyard that gives access to the Taifal enclosure.

All these changes were eliminated during the restorations of Francisco Íñiguez, although, by the existing photographic documentation, it is known that there was a slender tower that now appears with a crenellated finish inspired by the aspect of the Mudéjar church, and in the 18th century culminated with a curious bulbous spire.

The palace is accessed by climbing the noble staircase, a monumental structure composed of two large sections with geometric yeseria gables illuminated by half-angled windows with small decorations of leaves and stems with Gothic and Mudéjar influences, topped in a crochet-like pattern on the key of the arches.

To support this and the rest of the new structures it was necessary to cut through the high areas of the Taifal halls of the 11th century and to build before the north portico five massive octagonal pillars that, along with some pointed archways behind them, form a new ante-porch that unites the two Al-Andalusian perpendicular pavilions.

These ceilings have geometric grids of carved wood, painted and gilded with gold leaf, whose moldings show the heraldic motifs of the Catholic Monarchs: the yoke, the arrows and the Gordian knot united to the motto "Tanto monta" (relating to undoing the Gordian knot, both to cut it as to untie it, according to the anecdote attributed to Alexander the Great), as well as many leaflet florets finished with hanging pineapples.

Inside the coffers are inscribed octagons with a central curly leafed flower that finishes in large hanging pine cones that symbolize fertility and immortality.

Finally, all this structure is based on an arrocabe with moldings carved with vegetal and zoomorphic themes (including cardina, branches, fruits of the vine, winged dragons, and fantastic animals), and in the frieze that surrounds the whole perimeter of the room, there is Gothic calligraphy that reads: Ferdinandus, Hispaniarum, Siciliae, Corsicae, Balearumque rex, principum optimus, prudens, strenuus, pius, constans, iustus, felix, et Helisabeth regina, religione et animi magnitudine supra mulierem, insigni coniuges, auxiliante Christo, victoriosissimi, post liberatam a mauris Bethycam, pulso veteri feroque hoste, hoc opus construendum curarunt, anno salutis MCCCCLXXXXII.

The translation of this inscription is: Ferdinand, King of Spain, Sicily, Corsica and the Balearic Islands, the best of princes, prudent, courageous, pious, constant, just, jocose, and Isabella, queen, superior to all woman because of her pity and greatness of spirit, distinguished spouses very victorious with the help of Christ, after liberating Andalusia from the Moors, expelled the old and ferocious enemy, ordered to build this work in the year of the Salvation of 1492.In 1486, the area of the Courtyard of San Martín was assigned as the headquarters of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and facilities were installed adjacent to the courtyard to house the officers of this organization.

A marlon wall was erected around the entire building, leaving a round space inside and ending at its four corners in four pentagonal bastions, whose bases can be seen today.

No further substantial changes were made until 1705, when during the War of the Spanish Succession it housed two companies of French troops that raised the parapets of the lower wall of the moat following a design by the military engineer Dezveheforz.

In 1845, Mariano Nougués Secall warned of the deterioration of the al-Andalusian and Mudéjar remains of the palace in his report entitled Descripción e historia del castillo de la Aljafería, which urged that this historical-artistic ensemble be preserved.

In 1984, a regional parliamentary commission assigned to find a permanent headquarters for the Cortes of Aragon recommended locating the autonomous parliament in the Aljafería Palace.

[12] In this way the section was adapted and the building again restored by Ángel Peropadre, archeologist Juan Antonio Souto, Luis Franco Lahoz, and Mariano Pemán Gavín.