The gardens of Islam also embody a religious ideal. The name "Paradise" comes from pairidaeza, Old Persian for a park or enclosure, and wherever Islam has held sway can be found enclosed, paradisal gardens. These ideal oases of a desert people have trees for shade, and water, revered as an elemental life force, for music and entrancement, and its ability to open the mind to inspiration.
— Jennifer Westwood, On Pilgrimage