In the Qurʾān Jerusalem is never mentioned by name, and in the Traditions and other Muslim works, it is always called al-Baitu ʾl-Muqaddas, “the Holy House,” as referring to the Temple of Jerusalem, or Iliyāʾ. The allusions to it in the Qurʾān, are as follows:—
[Sūrah ii. 55] (where God, after giving the manna and quails, is represented as saying to the children of Israel): “Enter the city and eat therefrom as plentifully as ye wish.” Al-Baiẓāwī the commentator says this city was the the Baitu ʾl-Maqdis (Jerusalem), or Arīḥā (Jericho).
[Sūrah ii. 261]: “Like him who passed by a city when it was desolate, and as he walked over its roofs said, ‘How will God revive this after its destruction?’” Commentators say Elias or al-K͟hiẓr visited the city of Jerusalem after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.
[Sūrah xxx]. opens with a reference to the Persians conquering Syria and taking Jerusalem.
In [Sūrah xvii. 1], Muḥammad is represented as having taken his flight from Makkah to Jerusalem. “Celebrated be the praises of Him who by night took his servant from the Masjidu ʾl-Ḥarām (the Sacred Mosque) to the Masjidu ʾl-Aqṣā (the Remote Mosque), the precinct of which we have blessed.”
And in [Sūrah l. 40], one of the signs of the approach of the last day will be: “The crier (to prayer) shall cry from a near place” (i.e. a place from which all men shall hear). Ḥusain says this “near place” is the Temple at Jerusalem.
A curious account of Jerusalem and its temple, the Masjidu ʾl-Aqṣā, or Distant Mosque (so called because it is a distant object of pilgrimage), has been written by Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī, one of the commentators on the Qurʾān, known as the Jalālān. It was written in the year A.H. 848, A.D. 1444, and the special object of the book appears to be to exalt the merits of Jerusalem as a place of prayer and pilgrimage. [For an account of the Temple, see [MASJIDU ʾL-AQSA].] He says Jerusalem is specially honoured as being the scene of the repentance of David and Solomon. The place where God sent His angel to Solomon, announced glad tidings to Zacharias and John, showed David a plan of the Temple, and put all the beasts of the earth and fowls of the air in subjection to him. It was at Jerusalem that the prophets sacrificed; that Jesus was born and spoke in his cradle; and it was at Jerusalem that Jesus ascended to heaven; and it will be there that He will again descend. Gog and Magog shall subdue every place on the earth but Jerusalem, and it will be there that God Almighty will destroy them. It is in the holy land of Jerusalem that Adam and Abraham, and Isaac and Mary, are buried. And in the last days there will be a general flight to Jerusalem, and the Ark and the Shechinah will be again restored to the Temple. There will all mankind be gathered at the Resurrection for judgment, and God will enter, surrounded by His angels, into the Holy Temple, when He comes to judge the earth. (See Reynolds’ Translation, p. 16.)
The peculiar reference paid to the Sacred Rock (aṣ-Ṣak͟hrah) seems to be one of the many instances of afterthought and addition to Islām since the time of Muḥammad. Muʿāwiyah seems to have encouraged it in order to direct the affections and fanaticism of his subjects into a new channel, and to withdraw their exclusive attention from Makkah and al-Madīnah, where the rival family of ʿAlī resided.
In the same book there is a desultory account of the taking of Jerusalem by the K͟halīfah ʿUmar.
After the conclusion of the battle of Yarmūk (Hieromax), the whole army of the Muslims marched into the territory of Palestine and Jordan. Then they closely besieged the city. The conquest was attended with difficulty until the arrival of the K͟halīfah ʿUmar with four thousand horse. He came upon the holy place on the eastern side, and then encircled the city. They fought for a long time, until at last the inhabitants sent a party to the walls with a flag of truce, asking for a parley. The Patriarch (Sophronius) then demanded the safe conduct of a messenger to ʿUmar. The envoy came without hindrance and requested ʿUmar to make peace and to accept tribute.