Christian retellings of Islamic Paradise merged in pagan romance motifs

Evidence

It must be said that it was usual for Christians to allow themselves a rather purple rendering of the gardens and precious metals of Paradise, though usually not of the virgins so beloved of later romanticism. There is a genuine latinisation here, that in one aspect recalls the lapidaries, and, in another, some of the background of romance, the legend of the Reine Sybille, a hint of the native pagan idyll. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 819

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the grafting/cultural-synthesis theme in ‘Grafting & Growth’ — how one culture’s imagery gets grafted onto another’s.