Jan and Frans, along with some followers, broke away from the Auwal Mosque, when the former failed to succeed as imam.

When Jan van Bougies died in 1846, aged 112, he left the property to his wife Samida of the Cape, but specified that it continue to operate as a mosque, the second-oldest in Cape Town.

[1] The second storey was presumable added after the house had been turned into a mosque some time between 1811 and 1821.

There was once a garden in front of the house, in which two palm trees grew.

[3] The low sash window and shortened door are not by design; Long Street was raised over the years.