[Illustration: SOLOMON’S TEMPLE AS IT WAS.]
“Why should this rock be so highly honored?” For many reasons. It is honored alike by Jew, Christian, and Mohammedan. According to tradition, this rock was the summit of Mt. Moriah, and on it Abraham offered up Isaac. It was on this rock that Jacob saw the ladder extending from earth to heaven on which angels were ascending and descending. This rock was David’s threshing-floor that he bought from the Jebusite. On it David built an altar and offered the sacrifice that stayed the wrath of the angel, and thus saved the city. Over this rock Solomon built his Temple. On this rock Christ stood, when twelve years of age, and confounded the doctors with His questions and answers. On this same rock He stood, in later life, and preached the riches of His own everlasting gospel.
Since these traditions are wide-spread, and currently believed, it is not at all strange that this rock has imbedded itself in all Jewish and Christian hearts. “But” says the reader, “there is nothing in these stories, be they mythical or historical, to enkindle in the Mohammedan heart a reverence for this rock.” I admit your argument. “Why then,” you ask, “did the Mohammedans build the ‘Dome,’ and why does the Koran teach that one prayer offered here is worth a _thousand_ offered elsewhere?”
Your questions are reasonable, and I will solve the mystery for you. According to Moslem belief, Mohammed was an incarnation of deity. From this rock he ascended to heaven. He being a divine personage, the rock did not want to leave him. So, when Mohammed began the ascent, the rock started up also. It would have gone on to heaven with him, but Gabriel happened to be present, and when the rock was only seven feet high, he laid his hand upon it and stopped its upward flight. Since that time the rock has remained just where Gabriel left it. God performs a perpetual miracle by keeping the sacred rock suspended in the air.
The superstitious followers of the false prophet really believe these marvelous stories. They show us the imprint that Gabriel’s fingers made on the rock when, with a touch of his hand, he stayed its upward flight. They show us also deep impressions in the rock which, they affirm, were made by Mohammed’s feet as he leaped from the rock into the air! The fact that each impress is as large as a peck measure causes Johnson to remark Mohammed must have had at least a half bushel of feet.