Gabriel, Smiting His Wing
Upon Earth, Opened A Foundation To The Seventh Layer, And The Position
Of The Building Is Exactly Below The Heavenly Bayt Al-Ma’Amur,—A Moslem
Corruption Of The Legends Concerning The Heavenly And The Earthly
Jerusalem.
Our First Father circumambulated it as he had seen the
angels do, and was by them taught the formula of prayer and the number
of circuits.
According to others, again, this second house was not erected till
after the “Angelic Foundation” was destroyed by time.
3. The history of the third house is also somewhat
[p.321] confused. When the Bayt al-Ma’amur, or, as others say, the
tabernacle, was removed to heaven after Adam’s death, a stone-and-mud
building was placed in its stead by his son Shays (Seth). For this
reason it is respected by the Sabaeans, or Christians of St. John, as
well as by the Moslems. This Ka’abah, according to some, was destroyed by
the deluge, which materially altered its site. Others believe that it
was raised to heaven. Others, again, declare that only the pillars
supporting the heavenly tabernacle were allowed to remain. Most
authorities agree in asserting that the Black Stone was stored up in
Abu Kubays, whence that “first created of mountains” is called Al-Amin, “the
Honest.”
4. Abraham and his son were ordered to build the fourth house upon the
old foundations: its materials, according to some, were taken from the
five hills which supplied the second; others give the names Ohod, Kuds,
Warka, Sinai, Hira, and a sixth, Abu Kubays. It was of irregular shape;
32 cubits from the Eastern to the Northern corner; 32 from North to
West; 31 from West to South; 20 from South to East; and only 9 cubits
high. There was no roof; two doors, level with the ground, were pierced
in the Eastern and Western walls; and inside, on the right hand, near
the present entrance, a hole for treasure was dug. Gabriel restored the
Black Stone, which Abraham, by his direction, placed in its present
corner, as a sign where circumambulation is to begin; and the patriarch
then learned all the complicated rites of pilgrimage. When this house
was completed, Abraham, by Allah’s order, ascended Jabal Sabir, and
called the world to visit the sanctified spot; and all earth’s sons heard
him, even those “in their father’s loins or in their mother’s womb, from that
day unto the day of resurrection.”
5. The Amalikah (descended from Imlik, great grandson of Sam, son of
Noah), who first settled near Meccah, founded the fifth house.
Al-Tabari and the Moslem
[p.322] historians generally made the erection of the Amalikah to
precede that of the Jurham; these, according to others, repaired the
house which Abraham built.
6. The sixth Ka’abah was built about the beginning of the Christian era
by the Benu Jurham, the children of Kahtan, fifth descendant from Noah.
Ismail married, according to the Moslems, a daughter of this tribe,
Da’alah bint Muzaz ([Arabic]) bin Omar, and abandoning Hebrew, he began
to speak Arabic (Ta arraba). Hence his descendants are called
Arabicized Arabs.
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