Well of Souls

The Well of Souls (Arabic: بئر الأرواح, romanized: Biʾr al-Arwaḥ; sometimes translated Pit of Souls, Cave of Spirits, or Well of Spirits), is a partly natural, partly man-made cave located inside the Foundation Stone ("Noble Rock" in Islam) under the Dome of the Rock shrine on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) in Jerusalem.

In traditional Jewish sources, the Foundation Stone is considered the place from which the creation of the world began,[4] and where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Al-Tabari, a Muslim writer of the 9th century CE, identified the rock with the place where the Romans had "buried the temple [bayt al-maqdis] at the time of the sons of Israel.

According to a medieval Islamic tradition, the Foundation Stone tried to follow Muhammad as he ascended, leaving his footprint here while pulling up and hollowing out the cave below.

[3] Both Jewish and Muslim traditions relate to what may lie beneath the Foundation Stone, the earliest of them found in the Talmud in the former and understood to date to the 12th and 13th centuries in the latter.

They made many radical physical changes to the site at this time, including cutting away much of the rock to make staircases and paving the Stone over with marble slabs.

I shall content myself with saying that Captain Burton holds it to be the original granary of the corn threshed, or rather trodden out, upon the plain on either side, and winnowed from the Rock.

If the latter prove to be the great Altar of Sacrifice, the cave will be the cistern for the blood which ran off by the Bir el Arwáh (Well of Souls) into the Valley of Hinnom.

The more ignorant Moslems believe that the Sakhrah is suspended in the air, and its only support is a palm tree, held by the mothers of the two greatest prophets, Mohammed and Abraham.

The Shaykhs of the Mosque explained everything to us, even the minutest trifle, and showed us the places where Solomon prayed, and also David, and where Abraham and Elijah and Mohammed met on the occasion of his night flight upon El Borák.

[9] As one descends, next to the staircase there are two mihrabs (prayer niches):[9] to the left (south) is one dedicated to Prophet Dawud (David), with a trefoil arch supported by miniature marble twisted-rope columns.