Abu Qusay said: “Four hundred chests of gold were spent on the Mosque of Damascus, each chest containing fourteen thousand dinars.”
I add: that comes to five million six hundred thousand dinars.
According to another report, each chest held twenty-eight thousand dinars (1).
I therefore say: on that reckoning the sum disbursed for the construction of the Umayyad Mosque would be eleven million two hundred thousand dinars.
[Others maintain that far more than this was expended.]
Allah knows best.
Abu Qusay also related: A member of the palace guard came to al-Walid and said, “Commander of the Believers, the people claim that you have squandered the treasuries on what is not their due.”
A proclamation was made: “The congregational prayer is called!” The people assembled, and al-Walid ascended the pulpit and said, “It has reached me that you say al-Walid has spent the treasuries on what is not their due.”
Then he called out, “ʿAmr ibn Muhājir, rise and bring the wealth of the Bayt al-Māl.” It was loaded onto mules and brought to the mosque; leather carpets were spread beneath the Dome of the Eagle, and the money—gold poured like a torrent and pure silver—was emptied out until it formed a mound so high that a man standing on one side could not see the man on the other.
The great scales were then brought and the wealth was weighed; it proved sufficient to maintain the people for the next three years—and in another narration, for sixteen years—were no further revenue to come in at all. The people rejoiced, pronounced the takbīr, and praised Allah—Exalted is He—for this, prayed for the caliph, and went away thankful and supplicating.
Al-Walid said to them, “People of Damascus, by Allah I did not spend a single dirham from the public treasury on building this mosque; all of it came from my own wealth, and I have not diminished your property in the least.
People of Damascus, you boast before others of four things—your air, your water, your fruit, and your baths—so I wished to add for you a fifth: this very mosque (2).”
Some have said that in the qiblah wall of the Mosque of Damascus there were three gold-covered lapis-lazuli plaques, on each of which was written:
“In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.
Allah—there is no deity but Him, the Living, the Self-Sustaining; neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him.
There is no god but Allah alone, without partner, and we worship none but Him.
Our Lord is Allah alone, our religion is Islam, and our Prophet is Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him.
ʿAbd Allah, Commander of the Believers al-Walid, ordered the construction of this mosque and the demolition of the church that had stood here, in Dhu al-Qaʿdah of the year 86 AH.”
On a fourth plaque from among those plaques it was written:
“All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful…” to the end of the surah; then Surah al-Nāziʿāt, then Surah ʿAbasa, then Surah al-Takwīr.
They said that it was later erased after al-Maʾmūn came to Damascus (3).
They also recounted that the entire floor was overlaid with silver; that marble lined the walls up to a man’s height; that above the marble ran a great vine of gold; and that above the vine were gilded inlays—green, red, blue, and white—by which they depicted all manner of