Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens

[bi3mw]

That is a theory, that I would dispute...

I believe that most of the decorative elements -- like the nymphs, Zodiac symbols, merlons, towers, dragons -- were  almost certainly provided by the Scribe, who presumably was a "child of his time" (and maybe even literally a child...) 

But the Author may well have been from anywhere, from Constantinople to Timbuktu to Mars.  It is unclear what exactly he asked the Scribe to draw, and what he left to his discretion; and those parts of the contents that are likely to be "his" can't be recognized as "things of his time"...

All the best, --stolfi

Well, I wouldn't consider the nymphs, zodiac signs, battlements, towers, dragons, etc. to be decorative, but rather part of the narrative (but we already had a similar discussion about the colors, and I don't want to rehash that here).

What is true, however, is that the author could have come from anywhere. But the fact that there are almost no Christian symbols throughout the manuscript does not necessarily mean that the author was not a Christian. It is more likely due to non-religious themes.