Saruman's Pits

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

no one would have been watching him.

Sauron perhaps?

I'm inclined to agree more with mundane disguises being used personally, to connect with his "mind of metal and wheels".

Legate is correct as well; Gandalf arrived after dark:

'Late one evening I came to the gate, like a great arch in the wall of rock; and it was strongly guarded. But the keepers of the gate were on the watch for me and told me that Saruman awaited me. I rode under the arch, and the gate closed silently behind me, and suddenly I was afraid, though I knew no reason for it.'

It would have saved me a lot of time thinking about this if I'd checked slightly further back in the text. Happens to me all the time I feel.