Credited with creating some of Baghdad's most high profile sculptures and monuments, Iraqi artist Mohammed Ghani Hikmat was fascinated with romanticised legends and ideas traditionally attached to his homeland. A crossroads between Persia, the Arabian Gulf and the Levant, Iraq demonstrates an exceptional blend of cultures, home of vast deserts, ancient civilisations and cities that have inspired artists and intellectuals for centuries.

Alongside traditional Persian and Arab folk tales, Hikmat's artwork is heavily influenced by a sensational combination of Babylonian monuments, Sumerian art and sculptures from the Abbasid period, which in the present work manifests itself as an elaborate scene from the famous literary masterpiece One Thousand and One Nights.