[5][6]: 34  Deverdun notes that another possibility is that the name derives from an Arabic word meaning "knife-makers" or "cutlers", denoting the former presence of craftsmen along the main street of the area when the Jewish community was established there.

[7][2] Like the Bab Doukkala Mosque, it was conceived as part of a coherent religious and civic complex which included, in addition to the mosque itself, a madrasa, a library, a primary school, a hammam (public bathhouse), an ablutions house (mida'a) with latrines, a water trough for animals, and a public fountain for distributing water to locals.

[8] The mosque is the largest component in a complex of adjoining structures which also include a mida'a (ablutions house), a hammam (public bathhouse), a library, a Qur'anic reading school for children, a madrasa (no longer extant), and, more famously, a public fountain alongside a drinking trough for animals.

[7][10] Both of these shifts had begun during the preceding Marinid era, but the Saadians took them further and, in the process, consolidated the form of Moroccan mosques thereafter.

[6][8] The central archway on the south side of the courtyard is covered in part by a wooden screen called the anaza which covers the entrance to the aisle leading to the central mihrab (niche symbolizing the direction of prayer) and also acts as an "auxiliary mihrab" for those carrying out their prayers in the courtyard.

[8][6] The transverse aisle running along the qibla (southeastern) wall is demarcated from the rest of the prayer hall by another row of arches running perpendicular to the others, while the arches next to the mihrab have a "lambrequin" profile (a dented and lobed outline common in Moroccan and Moorish architecture) with muqarnas-carved intrados.

[8][6][11] It is made of a combination of different-coloured woods including cedar and ebony, and its decoration mixes marquetry, ivory or bone inlay, and panels with sculpted reliefs to form both geometric and plant motifs.

[6] Scholars have argued that while the quality of its craftsmanship does not live to its predecessors, it does show originality and a continued effort to adopt new forms into the decorative schema.

[2]: 287  A popular explanation reported in tradition claims that the minaret was left this way due to the demands of a vizier who lived near the mosque at the time of its construction and who objected to a tower from which someone could have potentially seen inside the courtyards and rooms of his private residence and harem.

[8] At the southwestern corner of the mosque, extending from the southern transverse aisle of the prayer hall, is a room called the bayt al-'itikaf (Arabic: بيت الاعتكف) which served as a space for spiritual retreat.

It was arranged around a small courtyard and its architecture was seemingly more modest than that of the famous Saadian-era Ben Youssef Madrasa.

[6] Still preserved today, it is located on an upper floor reached by a stairway and consists of a simple room which retains some fine stucco-carved decoration from the Saadian era.

[6] The room is partly divided by two dark marble columns with Saadian capitals carved with pine cone and palmette motifs.

[6] On the north side of the ablutions house and the hammam, facing the street, is an arched structure sheltering a fountain and drinking trough.

[6] It was heavily renovated around 1867, under the reign of Muhammad IV, when much of its decoration was redone or added, but many of its carved cedar wood elements are preserved from the original 16th-century construction.

Above these corbels is a cedarwood lintel and then several more horizontal bands with painted decoration (now partly faded), culminating in a wooden canopy with muqarnas and other carved elements typical of Moroccan architecture.

[6] The wooden corbels are covered with sculpted motifs of palmettes, pine cones, and leaves, while the lower lintel bears an inscription in Thuluth script, interwoven with images of leaves and plant motifs, which reads (approximate translation): "The most beautiful words that have been said are: praise to God in all circumstances!