All This Twisted Glory

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence.

The Book of Arya is a key motif in the text, illustrating the theme of Cultural Heritage as a Source of Power and Conflict. An ancient tome, the book is highly coveted by humans and Iblees, since it contains a map to the mountains of Arya. The mountains of Arya contain minerals with the most powerful magic on earth: in the series, magic is mined from rock and ore. Though humans have tried to access the minerals of Arya for centuries, the mountain has proved impossible to quarry. Cyrus steals the book from Arya in the first book of the series, planting a decoy in her carpet-bag. Kamran reads the inscription on this decoy—same as the one on the original—and understands its prophecy to imply he must marry Arya. The prophecy says, “Melt the ice in salt, braid the thrones at sea. In this woven kingdom, clay and fire shall be” (36).

However, the prophecy may allude to the vision of a new world, in which Jinn, made of fire, coexist in equality with clay-born humans. Historically, Jinn and humans were considered elementally antithetical, as dirt or clay extinguishes fire.