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other parts of the Haram, and of which I shall treat 
hereafter. 
The Mussulman believes that the Sahhara Allah is 
the place of all others, except El Kaaba or the House 
of God at Mecca, where the prayers of men are most 
agreeable to the divinity. It is on this account that all 
the prophets since the creation of the world to the time 
of the prophet Mouhhammed, have come hither to pray; 
and even now the prophets and angels come hither in 
invisible troops to make their prayers on the rock, ex- 
clusive of the ordinary guard of 70,000 angels, who 
perpetually surround it, and who are relieved every day. 
On the night when the prophet Mouhhammed was 
carried away from Mecca by the angel Gabriel, and 
transported in a moment through the air to Jerusalem, 
upon the mare called El Borak, which has the head and 
neck of a fine woman; as also a crown and wings; the 
prophet, after leaving El Borak at the gate of the tem- 
ple, came to offer up his prayer upon El Sahhara, with 
the other prophets and angels, who having saluted him 
respectfully, yielded to him the place of honour. 
At the moment when the prophet stood upon El 
Sahhara, the rock, sensible of the happiness of bearing 
the holy burden, depressed itself, and, becoming like 
soft wax, received the print of his sacred foot upon the 
upper part towards the south-west border. This print is 
now covered with a large sort of cage of gilt metal wire, 
worked in such a manner that the print cannot be seen 
on account of the darkness within, but it may be 
touched with the hand, through a hole made on pur- 
pose. The believers, after having touched the print 
proceed to sanctify themselves by passing the hand over 
the face and beard. In the interior of the rock is a cave, 
into which they descend by a staircase on the south- 
