[8][9] Construction on the White Mosque was initiated by the Umayyad governor (and future caliph) Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715–717 CE,[10] but was completed by his successor Umar II in 720.

In all Islam there is found no finer mihrab (prayer niche) than the one here, and its pulpit is the most splendid to be seen after that of Jerusalem; also it possesses a beautiful minaret, built by the caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.

I have heard my uncle relate that when this caliph was about to build the minaret, it was reported to him that the Christians possessed columns of marble, at this time lying buried beneath the sand, which they had prepared for the Church of Baliʾah (Abu Ghosh).

The gates of the main-building are made of cypress-wood and cedar, carved in the inner parts, and very beautiful in appearance.”[12]An earthquake in January 1034 destroyed the mosque, "leaving it in a heap of ruins", along with a third of the city.

[2] After the initial reconstruction, Saladin ordered in 1190 one of his outstanding architects, Ilyas Ibn ʿAbd Allah, to supervise what is considered the second construction phase of the mosque.

[4][dubious – discuss] The current Mamluk-built minaret stands on the northern side of the mosque compound, is square in shape and five stories high, each adorned with window niches, and has a balcony towards the top.

[4][dubious – discuss] Below the central courtyard of the mosque, there are three large and well-preserved underground cisterns with barrel-vaults carried by pillars.

[1] The reservoirs provided water for worshippers at the mosque and filled the pool for wudu at the center of the courtyard, of which only the foundation remains today.

[13] Excavations conducted by the State of Israel in 1949 on behalf of the Ministry of Religious Services and the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums revealed that the mosque enclosure was built in the form of a quadrangle and included the mosque itself; two porticoes along the quadrangle's east and west walls; the north wall; the minaret; an unidentified building in the centre to the area; and three subterranean cisterns.