The dastarkhan (ceremonial cloth) structures the Timurid meal: nans (flatbreads), a central osh (pilaf), shorba or mastava (soups), sambusa (stuffed pastries), followed by shirini (sweets) and sharbat (cool drinks) are all laid out at once on a great cloth on the floor. There is no sequential service: everything is presented together, and each diner helps themselves according to their appetite and rank.

Khorasan, whose cultural capital is Herat, produces the most prized saffron in the medieval Islamic world. The ultimate luxury spice at the Timurid court, it colors the pilaf gold, perfumes the sharbat, and tints the confections. For Navoi, refined vizier and patron, saffron embodies the splendor of Herat as much as the ink of his poems.