of the renowned lands: the Kaaba was set immediately above the mihrab, with the other provinces placed to the right and the left. They even portrayed the comely, fruit-bearing and blossoming trees found in those countries, and much else besides. The ceiling was a muqarnas (stalactite vaulting) covered in gold; every chain that hung from it was fashioned of gold or silver, and the candle-lamps were distributed throughout in their appointed niches.
They said: In the Companions’ mihrab there once stood a barniyya (1)—a vessel carved from rock crystal; some maintained that it was in fact a single precious stone, a pearl. It was called al-Qulaila, and whenever the lamps were extinguished it illuminated the place with its own radiance. When the Caliph al-Amin, son of al-Rashid, came to power—he was fond of crystal, some say of jewels in general—he sent word to Sulayman, the chief of police in Damascus, ordering him to dispatch it. Sulayman therefore stole the vessel and forwarded it to al-Amin. When al-Ma’mun later assumed the caliphate, he returned it to Damascus so as to reproach al-Amin.
Al-Hafiz Ibn ʿAsakir (2) said: It was lost after that, and in its place they set a glass barniyya. I myself saw that vessel; it was later broken, and nothing was put in its stead.
They also said: The doors that opened from the courtyard had no locks; instead, curtains hung loosely over them, and similar curtains covered the rest of the walls up to the vine motif with its gilded inlays. The capitals of the columns were plated with a great quantity of pure gold. Parapets were built to surround the roof, and al-Walid erected the northern minaret, known as Minaret al-ʿArus. The eastern and western minarets, however, had stood there for ages before that. In every corner of the sanctuary the Greeks had built a very tall tower for astronomical observation; the two northern ones collapsed, while the two southern towers remain to this day. Part of the eastern minaret was burned after the year 740 AH; it was torn down and rebuilt with funds taken from the Christians, who were accused of setting the fire. It then rose in the finest of forms (3), dazzlingly white, and it is—Allah knows best—the very balcony upon which Jesus son of Mary will descend at the end of time, after the appearance of the Dajjal, as is established in Sahih Muslim (4) in the report of al-Nawwas ibn Samʿan.
In short, when the Umayyad Mosque was completed, there was on the face of the earth no building more splendid, more magnificent, or more beautiful. Whoever looked at any part of it, from any angle, would be bewildered by its grace and loveliness and would never tire of gazing at it; indeed, the longer he looked, the more marvels would appear, each unlike the one before it. Within it there were talismans dating from the time of the Greeks, so that no kind of vermin whatsoever could enter the precincts—not snakes, scorpions, beetles, or spiders. Some even said that sparrows would not nest there, nor pigeons, nor anything else that might cause harm.