The al-Buraq Mosque ( ar, مَسْجِدُ ٱلْبُرَاق, Masjid al-Burāq) is a subterranean mosque next to the

Western Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط � ...

, located in the southwest corner of the Masjid al-Aqsa compound in the

Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem. The Old City is traditionally divided into ...

. This mosque is called al-Buraq Mosque because of a ring that is nailed to its wall where Muslims believe

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

tied the

Buraq The Buraq ( ar, الْبُرَاق "the lightning") is a heavenly equine or chimeral beast in Islamic tradition that notably served as the mount of the Islamic prophet Muhammad during his Isra and Mi'raj journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and up ...

that carried him from the

al-Haram Mosque , native_name_lang = ar , religious_affiliation = Islam , image = Al-Haram mosque - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg , image_upright = 1.25 , caption = Aerial view of the Great Mosque of Mecca , map ...

to the

al-Aqsa Mosque Al-Aqsa Mosque (, ), also known as Jami' Al-Aqsa () or as the Qibli Mosque ( ar, المصلى القبلي, translit=al-Muṣallā al-Qiblī, label=none), and also is a congregational mosque located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is situate ...

during the

Night Journey The Israʾ and Miʿraj ( ar, الإسراء والمعراج, ') are the two parts of a Night Journey that, according to Islam, the Islamic prophet Muhammad (570–632) took during a single night around the year 621 (1 BH – 0 BH). With ...

History

The mosque is located inside the vaulted passage that once led to Barclay's Gate, which is at the south end of the Western Wall. The inside of the gate, which served as an entrance to the compound during the early Islamic period, is currently known as al-Buraq Mosque. The entrance to the underground structure faces north and immediately left of the

Moors' Gate The Temple Mount, located in Jerusalem, has twelve gates, one of which, Bab as-Sarai, is now closed to the public but was open during Ottoman rule. There are also six other sealed gates. This does not include the Gates of the Old City of Jerus ...

(''Bāb al-Magharibah''). Temple Mount traditionalists identify Barclay's Gate with the Kiponus Gate, mentioned as the western gate of the outer court in the Mishnah (

Middot An interpunct , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot and centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script. (Word-separating spaces did n ...

3:1). They also suppose that the Kiponus Gate was named after Coponius (AD 6-9), a Roman procurator, thus one of the four gates described by

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

Architecture

According to Barclay's and his followers' archeological researches, the gate measures 5.06 metres in width and 8.80 metres in height of the doorway, which provides insight into the dimensions of the mosque. According to archeological sites, this gate was used as an entrance to the Temple Mount during the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

period, in connection with structural features, such as the chamfered edge: a distinctive feature of all Umayyad gates in the vicinity, such as the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by th ...

and the Double Gate. A sign outside the mosque indicates that it dates back to the Mamluk period. Overall, the gate passage was in use until some time after AD 985, when it was blocked and changed into a cistern adjacent to al-Buraq Mosque. Even though the main gate of al-Buraq Mosque located in the Western Wall is permanently sealed, the mosque is still accessible for worship from another entrance in the Temple Mount's western portico ('' riwāq'').

Gallery

File:Buraq Wall (circled in orange).jpg, The Buraq Mosque located (circled in orange) beside the Western Wall (also known as Buraq Wall) File:El Burak eksterior.jpg, Al-Buraq Mosque, , view towards south-west File:El Burak mosque.jpg, Vaulted space inside the subterranean chamber of Barclay's Gate, view towards east, File:El Burak mosque.stairs.jpg, Vaulted space view towards the west,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buraq Mosques in Jerusalem