The Alhambra is 1.3 metres or 4 feet high, and is a mixture of white, red, blue and gold. There is a mixture of warm and cool colours in the palace, which balance. The colour pallet that is used is the primary pallet. The castle decoration consists of the usual foliage, Arabic inscriptions, and geometrical patterns, which formed into arabesques.

There are many lines inside the building as the Arabic poems are encrypted all around the walls. Painted tiles were largely used as paneling for the walls. There is mocárabe vaulting in the "Salón de Mocárabes." The use of mocárabe in the Alhambra was a way to represent the cave in which Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) received the Quran. The Alhambra’s design is quite simple. It has basic square-shaped buildings with courts. Any extensions to the castle were connected by passages. The Alhambra rooms are full of colours and detail. They include: marble, stucco, tiles and arabesques.

Most of the walls are thick and are made of rubble faced with stone and brick masonry and covered with plaster. There are 22 towers. The towers are unalike, most of which form simple square shaped units. There is still some confusion about whether the towers are meant for defense or if it was a means of separating the aristocratic and the royal area. There are many pillars with the walls containing many poetic verses.

Many questioned the presence lions surrounding the fountain as the sculpturing of humans or animals is forbidden in Islam. The main attraction is the fountain with its 12 lion statues made of marble representing courage. There is emphasis on the lions. They functioned as a clock as water flowed every hour from one to another.

There are over 120 marble columns. There is a repetition of columns and a nice balance in the overall shape of the palace. The columns were paved and walled with multi-coloured tiles.