Imagine a mighty dome of greenish copper on the top of which is a golden crescent. Let this be as large as or larger than that of the Capitol at Washington, and let it rest upon a vast octagonal temple walled with tiles so fine that any one of them would be prized as a piece of rare china. Let there be a dado of marble below the tiles and a wide frieze above them inlaid with texts from the Koran in Arabic characters, and let the whole be entered by mighty doors over which are beautifully carved arches, and you have a faint idea of the Dome of the Rock, another name by which this mosque is known.
Here may be seen striking evidences of the belief of the Mohammedans as to Christ and the prophets. They believe in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and class Jesus as one of the prophets, although not so high as Mohammed. Among the verses of the Koran on the front of the mosque is one reading:
The Messiah, Jesus, is only the son of Mary, the Ambassador of God, and His word which He deposited in Mary. Believe, then, in God and His Ambassador, and do not maintain that in one there are three.
Another reads:
Blessings be on me in the day of my birth and my death. He is Jesus, the Son of Mary, the word of truth, concerning whom some are in doubt.
There are other passages of the Koran which tell the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Mohammedans reverence this spot in connection with them.
Let us take off our shoes and go in. The floor of the mosque is holy ground, so none is permitted to enter except in his stockings or bare feet. The inside is even more beautiful than the outside. The walls and roofs are a mass of carvings and mosaics. The mosaic is made up of bits of gold and glass, the latter of many colours, all so delicately put together that they form beautiful pictures. Each bit is only as big as the head of a nail, or smaller, and thousands of them are required to make a single picture. The columns upholding the roof are of marble, and the floor is of marble carpeted with old rugs from Turkey and Persia.
Right in the centre of the mosque is the huge rock upon which Abraham built his altar for Isaac, and upon which Ornan’s cattle threshed his grain, and where, the Mohammedans say, the Angel Gabriel will stand when he blows the last trump calling the people to judgment. At that time, according to Moslem belief, the souls of the human race will rush to this spot and present themselves before Mohammed and Christ, who will pass on their virtues and sins. After that all must go to the Pillar of Judgment and cross on the wire rope to the Mount of Olives. According to another Mohammedan story, the Moslems will be turned into fleas, and Mohammed himself into a sheep, in which form he will ascend to heaven with the faithful fleas in his wool.
The rock is esteemed sacred by every Mohammedan. It is surrounded by an iron stockade which none is allowed to enter. It is about forty feet long and sixty feet wide, and rises some six feet out of the floor. It fills the whole inclosure and comes so close to the fence that one can touch it, or, if he is devout, as are most of the worshippers we see in the mosque, he can put his mouth through the bars and impress a kiss upon it.