[1] The mosque was founded by the 'Alawi sultan Moulay Mohammed ben Abdallah (who briefly made Rabat his royal capital) and was completed in 1785.

The mosque occupies a visually prominent position on Avenue Mohammed V, one of the main boulevards of downtown Rabat.

The building has a nearly square floor plan measuring roughly 74 meters per side with a surface area of 5565 metres, making it the fourth largest historic mosque in Morocco.

[2][1][4] It has a relatively standard layout for a Moroccan mosque, featuring a large rectangular courtyard (sahn) surrounded by galleries and a prayer hall consisting of three main transverse aisles running parallel to the qibla (southeastern) wall.

[2][4] At either end of the courtyard, aligned with the side entrances, are ornamental pavilions which recall a similar arrangement at the much older al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fes.