In The Levant 11

In The Levant 11

This rock marks the site of the threshing-floor of Oman, the Jebusite,

which David bought, purchasing at the same time the whole of Mount

Moriah. Solomon built the Temple over this rock, and it was probably the

"stone of sacrifice." At the time Solomon built the Temple, the level

place on Moriah was scarcely large enough for the _naos_ of that

building, and Solomon extended the ground to the east and south by

erecting arches and filling in on top of them, and constructing a heavy

retaining-wall outside. On the east side also he built a porch, or

magnificent colonnade, which must have produced a fine effect of

Oriental grandeur when seen from the deep valley below or from the Mount

of Olives opposite.

 

To this rock the Jews used to come, in the fourth century, and anoint it

with oil, and wail over it, as the site of the Temple. On it once stood

a statue of Hadrian. When the Moslems captured Jerusalem, it became,

what it has ever since been, one of their most venerated places. The

Khalif Omar cleared away the rubbish from it, and built over it a

mosque. The Khalif Abd-el-Melek began to rebuild it in a. d. 686. During

the Crusades it was used as a Christian church. Allowing for decay and

repairs, the present mosque is probably substantially that built by

Abd-el-Melek.

 

At the extreme south of the area is the vast Mosque of Aksa, a splendid

basilica with seven aisles, which may or may not be the Church of St.

Mary built by Justinian in the sixth century; architects differ about

it. This question it seems to me very difficult to decide from the

architecture of the building, because of the habit that Christians

and Moslems both had of appropriating columns and capitals of ancient

structures in their buildings; and because the Moslems at that time used

both the round and the pointed arch.

 

This platform is beyond all comparison the most beautiful place in

Jerusalem, and its fairy-like buildings, when seen from the hill

opposite, give to the city its chief claim to Oriental picturesqueness.

 

The dome of the mosque Kubbet-es-Sukhrah is perhaps the most beautiful

in the world; it seems to float in the air like a blown bubble; this

effect is produced by a slight drawing in of the base. This contraction

of the dome is not sufficient to give the spectator any feeling of

insecurity, or to belittle this architectural marvel to the likeness

of a big toy; the builder hit the exact mean between massiveness and

expanding lightness. The mosque is octagonal in form, and although its

just proportions make it appear small, it is a hundred and fifty feet in

diameter; outside and in, it is a blaze of color in brilliant marbles,

fine mosaics, stained glass, and beautiful Saracenic tiles. The lower

part of the exterior wall is covered with colored marbles in intricate

patterns; above are pointed windows with stained glass; and the spaces

between the windows are covered by glazed tiles, with arabesque designs

and very rich in color. In the interior, which has all the soft warmth

and richness of Persian needlework, are two corridors, with rows of

columns and pillars; within the inner row is the Sacred Rock.

 

This rock, which is the most remarkable stone in the world, if half we

hear of it be true, and which by a singular fortune is sacred to three

religions, is an irregular bowlder, standing some five feet above the

pavement, and is something like sixty feet long. In places it has been

chiselled, steps are cut on one side, and various niches are hewn in

it; a round hole pierces it from top to bottom. The rock is limestone,

a little colored with iron, and beautiful in spots where it has been

polished. One would think that by this time it ought to be worn smooth

all over.

 

If we may believe the Moslems and doubt our own senses, this rock is

suspended in the air, having no support on any side. It was to this rock

that Mohammed made his midnight journey on El Burak; it was from

here that he ascended into Paradise, an excursion that occupied him

altogether only forty minutes. It is, I am inclined to think, the

miraculous suspension of this stone that is the basis of the Christian

fable of the suspension of Mohammed's coffin,--a miracle unknown to all

Moslems of whom I have inquired concerning it.

 

"Abd-el-Atti," I said, "does this rock rest on nothing?"

 

"So I have hunderstood; thim say so."

 

"But do you believe it?"

 

"When I read him, I believe; when I come and see him, I can't help what

I see."

 

At the south end of the rock we descended a flight of steps and stood

under the rock in what is called the Noble Cave, a small room about six

feet high, plastered and whitewashed. This is supposed to be the sink

into which the blood of the Jewish sacrifices drained. The plaster and

whitewash hide the original rock, and give the Moslems the opportunity

to assert that there is no rock foundation under the big stone.

 

"But," we said to Abd-el-Atti, "if this rock hangs in the air, why

cannot we see all around it? Why these plaster walls that seem to

support it?"

 

"So him used to be. This done so, I hear, on account of de women. Thim

come here, see this rock, thim berry much frightened. Der little shild,

what you call it, get born in de world before him wanted. So thim make

this wall under it."

 

There are four altars in this cave, one of them dedicated to David; here

the Moslem prophets, Abraham, David, Solomon, and Jesus, used to pray.

In the rock is a round indentation made by Mohammed's head when he first

attempted to rise to heaven; near it is the hole through which he rose.

On the upper southeast corner of the rock is the print of the prophet's

foot, and close to it the print of the hand of the angel Michael, who

held the rock down from following Mohammed into the skies.

 

In the mosque above, Abd-el-Atti led us, with much solemnity, to a small

stone set in the pavement near the north entrance. It was perforated

with holes, in some of which were brass nails.

 

"How many holes you make 'em there?"

 

"Thirteen."

 

"How many got nails?"

 

"Four."

 

"Not so many. Only three and a half nails. Used to be thirteen nails.

Now only three and a half. When these gone, then the world come to an

end. I t'ink it not berry long."

 

"I should think the Moslems would watch this stone very carefully."

 

"What difference? You not t'ink it come when de time come?"

 

We noticed some pieces of money on the stone, and asked why that was.

 

"Whoever he lay backsheesh on this stone, he certain to go into

Paradise, and be took by our prophet in his bosom."

 

We wandered for some time about the green esplanade, dotted with

cypress-trees, and admired the little domes: the Dome of the Spirits,

the dome that marks the spot where David sat in judgment, etc.; some

of them cover cisterns and reservoirs in the rock, as old as the

foundations of the Temple.

 

In the corridor of the Mosque of Aksa are two columns standing close

together, and like those at the Mosque of Omar, in Cairo, they are a

test of character; it is said that whoever can squeeze between them is

certain of Paradise, and must, of course, be a good Moslem. I suppose

that when this test was established the Moslems were all lean. A black

stone is set in the wall of the porch; whoever can walk, with closed

eyes, across the porch pavement and put his finger on this stone may be

sure of entering Paradise. According to this criterion, the writer of

this is one of the elect of the Mohammedan Paradise and his dragoman is

shut out. We were shown in this mosque the print of Christ's foot in a

stone; and it is said that with faith one can feel in it, as he can in

that of Mohammed's in the rock, the real flesh. Opening from this mosque

is the small Mosque of Omar, on the spot where that zealous khalif

prayed.

 

The massive pillared substructions under Aksa are supposed by Moslems to

be of Solomon's time. That wise monarch had dealings with the invisible,

and no doubt controlled the genii, who went and came and built and

delved at his bidding. Abd-el-Atti, with haste and an air of mystery,

drew me along under the arches to the window in the south end, and

showed me the opening of a passage under the wall, now half choked up

with stones. This is the beginning of a subterranean passage made by the

prophet Solomon, that extends all the way to Hebron, and has an issue in

the mosque over the tomb of Abraham. This fact is known only to Moslems,

and to very few of them, and is considered one of the great secrets.

Before I was admitted to share it, I am glad that I passed between the

two columns, and touched, with my eyes shut, the black stone.

 

In the southeast corner of the Harem is a little building called the

Mosque of Jesus. We passed through it, and descended the stairway into

what is called Solomon's Stables, being shown on our way a stone trough

which is said to be the cradle of the infant Jesus. These so-called

stables are subterranean vaults, built, no doubt, to sustain the south

end of the Temple platform. We saw fifteen rows of massive square

pillars of unequal sizes and at unequal distances apart (as if intended

for supports that would not be seen), and some forty feet high,

connected by round arches. We were glad to reascend from this wet and

unpleasant cavern to the sunshine and the greensward.

 

I forgot to mention the Well of the Leaf, near the entrance, in the

Mosque of Aksa, and the pretty Moslem legend that gave it a name, which

Abd-el-Atti relates, though not in the words of the hand-book:--

 

"This well berry old; call him Well of the Leaf; water same as Pool

of Solomon, healthy water; I like him very much. Not so deep as Bir

el-Arwâh; that small well, you see it under the rock; they say it goes

down into Gehenna."

 

"Why is this called the Well of the Leaf?"

 

"Once, time of Suleiman [it was Omar], a friend of our prophet come here

to pray, and when he draw water to wash he drop the bucket in the bottom

of the well. No way to get it up, but he must go down. When he was on

the bottom, there he much surprised by a door open in the ground, and

him berry cur'ous to see what it is. Nobody there, so he look in, and

then walk through berry fast, and look over him shoulder to the bucket

left in the well. The place where he was come was the most beautiful

garden ever was, and he walk long time and find no end, always more