The Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem has undergone multiple stages of construction and renovations over the years. It is generally agreed that ’Abd al- Malik, (685-705) the Umayyad Caliph who was the patron of the Dome of the Rock, started the construction of al-Aqsa Mosque at the end of the 7th century. A major building phase took place during the time of the caliphate of his son, al-Walid (709-715). The building suffered from several major earthquakes and was renovated and reconstructed during the Abbasid period by Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785), and possibly by Caliph al-Mansur (754-775). This mosque in Jerusalem does not point to Mecca but rather points 169.23° which is towards Petra, only 160 miles away.

John Moschus was born in the mid-sixth century. He wrote“Pratum spirituale” or Spiritual Meadow which contained 304 short chapters on the feats and achievements of holy men, plus anecdotes about suffering, temptation, evil and piety, as well as an appendix of thirty additional stories. Story 19 tells of the Muslims who began to build a mosque on a place called the Capital in Jerusalem. If this account is true, then construction of the Temple Mount began soon after its capture around 637 AD. (16 AH) (Hoyland, 1997, pages 63-65)

Caetani, Chron. 200-201 AD, The Arabic accounts of ’Umar’s visit to Jerusalem are discussed by Bussee, “Omar in Jerusalem.” The monk Anastasius of Sinai informs us that after an earthquake he witnessed clearing work being undertaken on the Temple Mount around 660 AD. (Anastasias of Sinai, Narrat., C3. and Blair, What is the date of the Dome of the Rock?)