Bibi Khanum Mosque

Bibi Khanum was Tamerlane's favorite wife - a Chinese princess.  While Tamerlane was away conquering India, Bibi Khanum decided she wanted to build him a mosque as a "glad-you're-back-from-pillaging" present.  So she hired a young Persian architect to design and build it.  When one arch was left unfinished, Bibi Khanum went to the young architect and discovered that he had fallen madly in love with her and refused to finish unless he allowed her a kiss! (I hate it when that happens)

She refused and told him "why not take one of my slave girls?  Like these colored eggs, here, we may look different on the outside, but we're all the same on the inside" The love-struck architect then replied, holding in front of him two bowls - one full of water, the other full of white wine: "The liquid in these bowls look the same, but one leaves me cold and the other leaves me intoxicated"

Finally, BK allows the architect a kiss on her cheek through her hand, but his passion is so strong that the kiss still leaves an imprint on her cheek. When Tamerlane comes back, he sees the mosque ("thanks, honey") and sees the kiss ("no thanks, honey!") and throws her off a minaret while the architect sprouts wings and flies off to Mecca. From that day forward, Tamerland ordered all women to cover themselves, lest they tempt men to covet their neighbors' wives.

On an unrelated note, below is the giant koran holder in the courtyard of the BK mosque.  Legend holds that if a woman crawl underneath its legs, she will get pregnant.