The building bears many inscriptions, including dedicatory texts, Qurʾanic excerpts, prayers, Hadith, and poetry.

The cloak was then taken to India, from where it was taken to Balkh, in the west of today's Afghanistan, by the then governor of the city, Mir Yar Beg.

Kabul was on the route south from Fayzabad, and it was near the edge of the town that the group stopped to rest and allow local people to view the cloak.

[1] Every year, a popular Nowruz celebration is held outside the shrine, during which a large banner is raised in remembrance of Imam Ali, who was the standard-bearer of Muhammad.

Cut into the bed rock, a tight staircase leads down to a small cavelike chamber were women now leave petitions and votive offerings.

Largely due to this, the shrine has been victim to a number of significant attacks, including the March 2018 Kabul suicide bombing.

In late 2021, journalists from The New York Times embedded with a six-man Taliban unit tasked with protecting the shrine from the Islamic State, noting "how seriously the men appeared to take their assignment.