The obvious similarity of the fall of two figures from a tower-like structure seems to suggest that one way in which the Marseille-style imagery may have been commonly understood as is in reference to the popular pseudo-infancy gospel of St-Matthew, in which the Holy Family escaped Herod, and on entering Temples in Egypt, idols fell from their pedastals.

In the mediæval European thinking, it may also have been popularly understood that Egypt, though still containing Christian churches, was essentially an islamic country. The depiction of the tower may therefore also have been perceived as a minaret from which its callers fell with the advent of Christian influence. Of course, this suggestion is asynchronistic.