According to Pliny, Dinocrates built a temple at Alexandria, in honor of
Arsinoe, sister and wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The whole interior was
to have been incrusted with loadstone, in order that the statue of the
princess, composed of iron, should be suspended in the centre, solely by
magnetic influence. On the death of Ptolemy and of the architect, the
idea was abandoned, and has never been executed elsewhere, though
believed to be practicable. A similar fable was invented of the tomb of
Mahomet.