It was originally built in the early 14th century by the Nasrid ruler Muhammad III, making it the oldest surviving palatial structure in the Alhambra.

[1]: 258 [2]: 370 [3]: 252 The Partal Palace was built by the Nasrid ruler Muhammad III who ruled the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state in Al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula), from 1302 to 1309.

[1]: 236  Another palace, called the Palacio del Partal Alto by archeologists, once stood to the south in an area now occupied by gardens.

Two large 14th-century marble lions, originating from the now-demolished Maristan in the Albaicin, had previously been moved to the Partal Palace but were removed in the 1890s to be restored and preserved.

[8] Between 1923 and 1924 Leopoldo Torres Balbás restored and partly rebuilt the portico façade, revealing and reconstituting the sebka stucco decoration above the arches.

[10][7] Another scholarly view holds that the Partal Palace never had an enclosed courtyard, and consisted mainly of the present structure facing an open landscape with the pool.

[8] Both the arched façade of the external portico and the interior walls are carved or covered with intricate stucco decoration from the time of Muhammad III.

As a result of its open portico and many windows, scholar Arnold Felix describes it as the most "transparent" building in the Islamic architecture of Al-Andalus.

[1]: 261  The original wooden cupola ceiling inside the larger chamber was dismantled and moved by its last private owner, Arthur von Gwinner, around the beginning of the 20th century.

[12][1]: 271  The room, its mihrab, and the exterior of its southwestern window are richly decorated with carved stucco in the Nasrid-era tradition, with arabesque motifs and various Arabic inscriptions with religious themes and references to God (Allah).

The room is covered by a Nasrid-era timber frame ceiling, constructed independently from the roof above it, which features interlacing eight-pointed star motifs.

[11] On the oratory's southeast side is an adjacent and contiguous structure known today as the House of Astasio de Bracamonte, after the squire of the Count of Tendilla (the governor of the Alhambra after 1492).

[7][12][4][11][13]: 146  Art historian Marianne Barrucand states that the structure itself was likely built earlier by Muhammad III, like the rest of the Partal.

[6]: 189  Recent dendrochonological analyses, published in 2014, indicate that several of the original timber pieces used to construct the oratory's ceiling were cut in the winter of 1332–1333.

The restoration uncovered, among other things, a previously obscured Arabic inscription frieze painted along the upper boards around the base of the ceiling, containing part of a surah from the Qur'an.