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The first verse in Sura 17 of the Qur'an states: "Praise be to God who Carried His servant by night from the sacred mospue to the renote mosque, whose surroundings we blessed, that we might show him of our sings." The verse describes the "great leap" expe rienced by Muhammad, when he was borne from the "sacred mosque" - the Kabba in Mecca _ to the "remote mosque" (al-masjad al-aqsa) in Jerusalem. According to tradion, the angel Gabriel guided Muhammad on his journy, after placing him on the winged horse, A l-Burak. In Jerusalem Muhammad dismounted by the gate to the mosqueand tied the horse to the iron ring that was affixed to the Western Wall, the same ring which all the prophets tied thier horses. From the top of he great rock on the Temple Mount Muhammad ascended to heaven, saw Paradise and Hell, met figures from the Bible and the New Testament, and spoke to Allah about the precepts of Islam and particulary about the commandment of worship. |
  
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