After having turned his eyes to right and left, and attentively examined the place, 'Allah alchbar!' cried Omar; here is the temple of David, described to me by the Prophet.'" He found the Sakhra (the rock which forms the summit of Mount Moriah,) and which, left alone after the different destructions of the different temples, became the theme of a multitude of traditions and legends, (Jewish and Mussulman) covered with filth, heaped up there by the Christians through hatred of the Jews.

"Omar spread his cloak over the rock, and began to sweep it; and all the Mussulmans in his train followed his example." (_Le Temple de Jerusalem,_ a monograph, pp.

73-75, by Count Melchior de Vogue, ch.

vi.) The Mosque of Omar rose up on the site of Solomon's temple.

The Christians retained the practice of their religion in their churches, but they were obliged to conceal their crosses and their sacred books.