The Umayyad sovereigns of al-Andalus resided at the very centre of Córdoba in a palace called Alcázar, just in front of the city's celebrated main mosque. The events that took place in this palace, and especially matters of a private nature, were rarely divulged to the subjects living outside its high walls and closely-guarded gates, as the Umayyad rulers zealously protected their intimacy. Luckily, however, there were always gossips on hand to recount intriguing stories to whoever wanted to listen to them, and likewise, even more fortunately, on rare occasions some of these stories were heard by someone who chose to write them down, and thus allowed them to survive the oblivion wrought by the passage of time.

One of the most interesting stories of the Umayyad alcázar was told by a certain Ṭalāl, a palace eunuch, who was in charge of the harem and was famed for his intelligence and trustworthiness. According to Ṭalāl, following a pleasant afternoon in the alcázar gardens in the company of his female slaves, the Emir ‘Abd al-Raḥmān III decided that he would spend that night with his wife, Fāṭima, the highest-ranking woman in his harem, as she was his paternal cousin and therefore also belonged to the Umayyad lineage. When a servant informed Fāṭima that she should make the necessary preparations to go to the emir's chambers and spend the night with him, the rest of the women of the harem congratulated and complimented her in every way. The most effusive display of good will was made by one of the emir's concubines, Marjān, a slave of Christian origin and a fierce rival of Fāṭima. Her many felicitations for having obtained the privilege of spending the night with the emir began to vex the caliph's wife, who sought to play down the event's significance by revealing that their encounters were no longer as passionate as before, whereby the matter did not merit such a fuss. Marjān nonetheless persisted. She even went so far as to say that, in exchange for the privilege of spending the night with ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, she would give away all she had, apart from the dress she was wearing. The haughty Fāṭima swallowed the bait: was Marjān really prepared to pay any price for the opportunity of spending the night with the emir?