[Discussion concerning the head of John son of Zechariah—may Allah have mercy on him]

Ibn ʿAsākir (1) relates: Zayd ibn Wāqid said, “Al-Walīd appointed me over the laborers who were building the Great Mosque of Damascus. We came upon a grotto and informed al-Walīd of it. That night he came to us, candles borne before him. He climbed down and found a small chapel, three cubits by three cubits, with a chest inside. We opened the chest, and inside it was a casket; in the casket lay the head of John son of Zechariah—may Allah have mercy on him. Written upon it were the words: ‘This is the head of John son of Zechariah.’ Al-Walīd ordered that it be returned to its place and said, ‘Make the column above it distinct from the other columns.’ Accordingly they set over it a column with a carved capital.”

In another report from Zayd ibn Wāqid it is said: “That spot lay beneath one of the corners of the dome—meaning before the dome was built—and hair and skin were still upon the head.” (2)

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim said, on the authority of Zayd ibn Wāqid: “I was present when the head of John son of Zechariah was taken out from the eastern-southern recess that adjoins the Majlis of Bajīlah, and it was placed beneath the Kāsk column.” (3)

Al-Awzāʿī and al-Walīd ibn Muslim both said: “It is the fourth column with the carved capital.”

Abū Bakr ibn al-Barāmī transmitted—through Aḥmad ibn Anas ibn Mālik, from Ḥabīb the muʾadhdhin, from Abū Ziyād and Abū Umayya al-Shaʿbāniyyān (4)—that Sufyān al-Thawrī said, “A single prayer in the Mosque of Damascus equals thirty thousand prayers.” This report is exceedingly strange.

Ibn ʿAsākir also narrated, by way of Abū Mus-hir, from al-Mundhir ibn Nāfiʿ—the client of Umm ʿAmr bint Marwān—from his father (in another version: from a man whom he named)—that Wāthila ibn al-Asqaʿ came out of the mosque gate adjoining the Gate of Jīrūn. He was met by Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, who asked, “Where are you headed?” Wāthila replied, “To Bayt al-Maqdis.” Kaʿb said, “Come, and I will show you a spot inside the mosque—whoever prays there it is as though he has prayed in Bayt al-Maqdis.” He led him to the area between the Yellow Gate (5)—the gate from which the governor, meaning the caliph, emerges—and the ḥinّya, that is, the western arcade. He then said, “Whoever prays within these limits, it is as though he has prayed in Bayt al-Maqdis.” Wāthila said, “That is where I and my people customarily sit.” Kaʿb replied, “So it is.” This report as well is exceedingly odd and repudiated; one cannot rely upon the likes of it.