6 ΤΠΕ KNIGHTS TEMPM.RS. 1 A few remarks in elucidation of the name Templars, or Knights of the Temple, may not be altogether unacceptable. By the Mussulmen, the site of the great Jewish temple oa Mount Moriah has always been regarded with peculiar veneration. Mahomet, in the first year of the publication of the Koran, directed his followers, when at prayer, to turn their faces towards it, and pilgrimages hare constantly been made to the holy spot by devout Moslems. On the conquest of Jerusalem by the Arabians, it was the first care of the Caliph Omar to rebuild " the Temple of the Lord." Assisted by the principal chieftains of his army, the Commander of the Faithful undertook the pious office of clearing the ground with his own hands, and of tracing out the foundations of the magnificent mosque which now crowns with its dark and swelling dome the elevated summit of Mount Moriah.* This great house of prayer, the most holy Mussulman Temple in the world after that of Mecca, is erected over the spot where .-" Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David bis father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite." It remains to this day in a state of perfect preservation, and is one of the finest specimens of Saracenic architecture in existence. It is entered by four spacious doorways, each door facing one of the cardinal points ; the Bab el D'janmt, or gate of the garden, on the north ; the Bab el Kebla, or gate of prayer, on the south ; the Bab ib'n el Daoud, or the • D'Herletot Bib. Orient, p. 270, 687, ed. 1697. William of Tyre, who lived at Jerusalem shortly after the conquest of the city by the Crusaders, tells us that the Caliph Omar required the Patriarch Sophronius to point out to him the aite of the temple destroyed by Titus, which bring done, the caliph immediately commenced the erection of a fresh temple thereon, "Quo postea infra modicum tempns juxta conceptum mentis suie féliciter coiwuuiniato, tpwle hotUe Hierosaiyinia este dimtcUur, multis et utfe nites ditavit poBuBsiumbuì."— Vili, Tyr. tilt. i. cup. 2.