[14] The Hall of the Two Sisters (Sala de Dos Hermanas), on the north side of the court, was completed in 1362 or between 1362 and 1365, when Muhammad V was celebrating his return to the throne and was also refurbishing the Mexuar and the Comares Palace.

[14] Inscriptions throughout the palace feature poems by Ibn Zamrak, a poet and long-serving vizier at the time, which suggests that he was probably involved in its design.

[7] On the south side of the palace, separated from it by a narrow street, was the Rawda (Arabic: روضة), the dynastic mausoleum of the Nasrids, of which only the foundations remain today.

[20] Another scholar commenting on this theory, Cynthia Robinson, argues that while its function as a formal madrasa and a mausoleum may be hard for scholars to accept, the building could have still functioned as a kind of bayt al-ḥikma ("house of knowledge") – meaning a place dedicated to education, contemplation and other intellectual or cultural activities – aimed at a royal Nasrid audience and related to their patronage of Sufism.

The room's former muqarnas-vault ceiling, now lost, was eventually replaced by a Baroque-style plaster vault in 1714, designed by painter Blas de Ledesma for the visit of Phillip V and Isabella of Parma.

[30][31] In 1859 the architect Rafael Contreras "restored" the courtyard's eastern pavilion by giving it a spherical dome roof with ceramic tiling, based in part on Iranian architecture.

[32][33] In 2002, the Patronato de la Alhambra (the official agency in charge of the historical site) began a major and comprehensive restoration of the Court of the Lions.

[34][35][36] One of the last steps in the restoration was the replacement of the courtyard's previous gravel flooring with a pavement of Macael marble flagstones, a decision based on the study of historical archives and on new archeological investigations showing that the underlying rock bed would have made the topsoil too thin for gardens.

[37][38][39] A recent study of some of the muqarnas compositions around Court of the Lions was able to identify deformations and imperfections that have occurred due to the many repairs and restorations that took place across generations.

[44] It has been argued by Georges Marçais that the spacing of columns and arches was set to the golden ratio, but there is no strong evidence that Muslim architects ever used it.

This fountain consists of a large elevated basin surrounded by twelve stylized lion sculptures, all carved from marble.

The ceiling was eventually replaced by the current Baroque-style plaster vault in 1714, designed by Spanish painter Blas de Ledesma.

[50] The main central space of the hall is covered by a highly elaborate three-dimensional muqarnas dome ceiling, featuring a 16-sided cupola in the shape of an eight-pointed star.

This courtyard is flanked by two arcades of three arches that feature marble columns topped by capitals carved in serpentine, which are unique in the Alhambra.

[53][25] Another nearby element, slightly to the east, is the Puerta de la Rauda ("Gate of the Rawda"), a horseshoe-arch doorway topped by a dome.

[59] The painting in the middle chamber shows a group of ten Muslim men in noble garb sitting on cushions and engaged in a discussion or debate.

The transitional zones between the octagonal cupola and the square chamber are occupied by muqarnas sculpting, much like in the Sala de los Abencerrajes.

The muqarnas composition, which consists of at least 5000 prismatic pieces, unfolds from the central summit into sixteen miniature domes right above the level of the windows.

[64] Right above the tile decoration is an inscription band containing a 24-line poem by Ibn Zamrak which praises the hall's dome and makes reference to the Pleiades.

As with the Sala de los Abencerrajes, an upper floor room above the entrance corridor also has windows overlooking the courtyard.

[51] This small chamber has some of the most sophisticated stucco-carved decoration in the Alhambra, featuring arabesque, geometric, and epigraphic motifs with blind muqarnas arches framing the windows.

[69][63] The mirador room is covered by a unique lantern vault ceiling consisting of a wooden lattice structure shaped into an interlacing geometric motif and filled with pieces of coloured glass.

[68] The central fountain of the courtyard, which has been modified and restored several times over the centuries, consists of a bowl-like marble basin surrounded by twelve lions.

Several tests and studies began in 1945 and in 1966 it was generally restored to its hypothesized original appearance, removing the pieces that were added to it from the 16th century onward.

[36] In 1890, archeologist Francisco de Paula Valladar hypothesized that this piece was the means by which water originally spilled into the fountain's main basin.

[79][81] Below is an excerpt (verses 3 to 7):[83] وَمَنْحُوتَة مِنْ لُؤْلُؤٍ شَفَّ نُورُهَا تُحَلِّي بِمُرْفَضِّ الجُمَانِ النَّوَاحِيَا بِذَوْبِ لُجَيْنِ سَالَ بَيْنَ جَوَاهِرٍ غَدَا مِثلَهَا في الحُسْنِ أبْيَضَ صَافِيَا تَشَابُهُ جَارٍ لِلْعُيُونِ بِجَامِدٍ فَلَمْ نَدْرِ أَيَّاً مِنْهُمَا كَانَ جَارِيَا أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ المَاءَ يَجْري بِصَفْحِهَا وَلَكِنَّهَا سَدَّتْ عَلَيْهِ المَجَارِيَا كَمِثْلِ مُحِبٍّ فَاضَ بِالدَّمْعِ جَفْنُهُ وَغَيَّضَ ذَاكَ الدَّمْعَ إِذْ خَافَ وَاشِيَا Sculpted of pearls, of limpid light all bedecked by dewdrops spilled; liquid silver flowing amongst jewels, sharing their white, transparent beauty.

[16] The presence of the four converging water channels in the floor of the courtyard is generally considered to be a symbolic representation of Paradise, which in both Muslim and Christian traditions is described as having four rivers.

[85][14] Gardens with a chahar bagh-type quadripartite division are also known in many earlier monuments in both Al-Andalus and the Maghreb (North Africa), where they are often known as a riad (or riyad).

[86][87] The star-like shape of the elaborate muqarnas dome in the Hall of the Abencerrajes (on the south side of the courtyard) may also symbolize the celestial heaven, as suggested by a poem by Ibn Zamrak that was originally inscribed on the walls.

[20] Cynthia Robinson, in discussing Ruiz Souza's theory, agrees in general that madrasas and Sufi shrines in the Maghreb, such as those in Fez and Tlemcen, must have had an effect on the design of the Palace of the Lions.