Sainte Sophie Aya Sofia

The inscription encircling the rays at the centre of the dome is the Light Verse from the Coran and in arabic and reads "in the name of God the merciful and pitiful, God is the light of heaven and earth. His light is Himself, not as that which shines through glass or gleams in the morning star, or glows in the firebrand.".It was added in the eighteenth century and restored in the mid-nineteenth century by Izzet Effendi.<