“In the courtyard of the garden of the king's palace” – Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya: Rabbi Yehuda said: The garden was on the outside and the courtyard on the inside. Rabbi Neḥemya said: The garden was on the inside and the courtyard on the outside. Rabbi Pinḥas said: I sustain both of your statements; when he wanted, he made it a courtyard, and when he wanted, he made it a garden. How so? He would unfurl the curtain and render it a courtyard, furl the curtain and render it a garden. Alternatively, “in the courtyard of the garden of the king’s palace” – that it cost a lot of money.11Apparently, this reading is based on the word bitan (palace) being read as a form of the verb natan, meaning give. Accordingly, the expression “the courtyard of the garden of the king’s palace [bitan] should be understood as “the courtyard of the garden for which the king gave [a lot].”