Note XXX. There was a time when the Christians in Palestine adopted the practice of representing the entry of Jesus into the Temple on Palm Sunday, entering Jerusalem in procession by the Golden Gate. The custom may be traced up to the time of Godfrey of Bouillon. On this subject the reader may consult, as contemporary authorities, Albert of Aix (Book XIII. Chap. 17) and William of Tyre (Book VIII. Chap. 3, and Book XI. Chap. 35).
Note XXXI. In the times of Alberto Floresi, an Italian traveller who visited Jerusalem in 1630, it was by the Dung gate (called also the gate of the Mogarabins) that the procession entered, which some centuries before, as I mentioned above, starting from Bethphage, and crossing the Mount of Olives, passed through the Golden Gate. (MS. Travels of Floresi, communicated to the Abbé Mariti by Dr Octavio Targioni Tozzetti, L'État présent de Jérusalem, p. 21.)
Note XXXII. The Mohammedans say that the mare el-Borak was the steed ordinarily ridden by the Angel Gabriel, who used often to lend it to Mohammed to take his night-journeys. They portray it as having the head and the neck of a beautiful woman, with a crown and wings.
Note XXXIII. Many are the stories which are told of the Golden Gate, as well by Mohammedans as by Christians: I quote some of them.
The Mohammedans say that the two divisions of the Golden Gate were made in memory of the repentance of Adam and Eve, for having disobeyed the orders which God had given them in Paradise, and at the same time of the mercy of God shown towards them. Hence they call the southern aisle the Gate of Mercy, and the other, the Gate of Repentance.
There is a general belief amongst Mohammedans that a day will come when Jerusalem will fall into the hands of a Christian prince, who will take it on a Friday. This is one of the reasons why it remains a fortified town.
The Christians have no less traditions on this head. For example, they report, that when the Emperor Heraclius returned victorious to Jerusalem, bringing back thither the wood of the Holy Cross which he had recovered in Persia, he wished to pass through the Golden Gate on horseback, and decked out in all the insignia of royalty, but that an invisible hand held him back, whilst a voice ordered him to dismount, to divest himself of his regal robes, and to pass that threshold in all humility; whereupon he was able to pass.