The exterior of the mosque is adorned with seven minarets, irregularly distributed: 1. Minaret of Bābu ʾl-ʿUmrah; 2. of Bābu ʾs-Salām; 3. of Bābu ʿAlī; 4. of Bābu ʾl-Wadāʿ; 5. of Madrasah Kail Beg; 6. of Bābu ʾz-Ziyādah; 7. of Madrasah Sultān Sulaimān. They are quadrangular or round steeples, in no way differing from other minarets. The entrance to them is from the different buildings round the mosque, which they adjoin. A beautiful view of the busy crowd below is obtained by ascending the most northern one. (Taken, with slight alterations, chiefly in the spelling of Arabic words and names, from Burckhardt’s Travels in Arabia, vol. i. p. 243.)
Mr. Sale says: “The temple of Mecca was a place of worship, and in singular veneration with the Arabs from great antiquity, and many centuries before Muhammad. Though it was most probably dedicated at first to an idolatrous use, yet the Muhammadans are generally persuaded that the Kaʿbah is almost coeval with the world; for they say that Adam, after his expulsion from Paradise, begged of God that he might erect a building like that he had seen there, called Baitu ʾl-Maʿmūr, or the frequented house, and al Durah, towards which he might direct his prayers, and which he might compass, as the angels do the celestial one. Whereupon God let down a representation of that house in curtains of light, and set it in Mecca, perpendicularly under its original, ordering the patriarch to turn towards it when he prayed, and to compass it by way of devotion. After Adam’s death, his son Seth built a house in the same form, of stone and clay, which being destroyed by the Deluge, was rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael at God’s command, in the place where the former had stood, and after the same model, they being directed therein by revelation.
“After this edifice had undergone several reparations, it was, a few years after the birth of Muhammad, rebuilt by the Quraish on the old foundation, and afterwards repaired by Abdullah Ibn Zubair, the Khalif of Mecca; and at length again rebuilt by Yusuf, surnamed al Hijaj Ibn Yusuf, in the seventy-fourth year of the Hijrah, with some alterations, in the form wherein it now remains. Some years after, however, the Khalif Harun al Rashid (or, as others write, his father al Mahdi, or his grandfather al Mansur) intended again to change what had been altered by al Hijaj, and to reduce the Kaʿbah to the old form in which it was left by Abdullah, but was dissuaded from meddling with it, lest so holy a place should become the sport of princes, and being new-modelled after everyone’s fancy, should lose that reverence which was justly paid it. But notwithstanding the antiquity and holiness of this building, they have a prophecy by tradition from Muhammad, that in the last times the Ethiopians shall come and utterly demolish it, after which it will not be rebuilt again for ever.” (Prel. Dis., p. 83).
The following are the references to the Sacred Mosque in the Qurʾān:—
[Sūrah ii. 144, 145]: “From whatever place thou comest forth, then turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque; for this is a duty enjoined by thy Lord; and God is not inattentive to your doings. And from whatever place thou comest forth, then turn thy face toward the Sacred Mosque: and wherever ye be, to that part turn your faces, that men have no cause of dispute against you.”
[Sūrah v. 2]: “O Believers! violate neither the rites of God, nor the sacred month, nor the offering, nor its ornaments, nor those who press on to the Sacred Mosque, seeking favour from their Lord and His good pleasure in them.”
[Sūrah viii. 33–35]: “But God chose not to chastise them while thou wast with them, nor would God chastise them when they sued for pardon. But because they debarred the faithful from the Sacred Mosque, albeit they are not its guardians, nothing is there on their part why God should not chastise them. The God-fearing only are its guardians; but most of them know it not. And their prayer at the house is no other than whistling through the fingers and clapping of the hands—‘Taste then the torment, for that ye have been unbelievers.’ ”
[Sūrah ix. 7]: “How shall they who add gods to God be in league with God and with His Apostle, save those with whom ye made a league at the Sacred Mosque? So long as they are true to you, be ye true to them; for God loveth those who fear Him.”
[Sūrah ix. 28]: “O Believers! only they who join gods with God are unclean! Let them not, therefore, after this their year, come near the Sacred Mosque. And if ye fear want, God, if He please, will enrich you of His abundance: for God is Knowing, Wise.”
[Sūrah xvii. 1]: “Glory be to Him who carried his servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the temple that is more remote (i.e. Jerusalem), whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him of our signs! for He is the Hearer, the Seer.”