392 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP. 
VIII. 
city; the abolition of the Mosaical dispensation; the 
total overthrow and dispersion of the Jews ; these 
constitute all together an existing miracle, 
perplexing the sceptic with incontestable proof 
of the divine origin of our religion. 
Phocas believed the whole space surrounding 
this building to be the antient area of the tem- 
ple^ ; and Golius, in his Notes upon the Astro- 
nomy of jilferganes ', says, the whole foundation 
of the original edifice remained \ As to the 
mosque itself, there is no building at Jerusalem 
that can be compared with it, either in beauty 
or riches. The lofty Saracenic pomp so nobly 
displayed in the style of the building ; its nume- 
rous arcades ; its capacious dome, with all the 
stately decorations of the place ; its extensive 
area, paved and variegated with the choicest 
marbles* ; the extreme neatness observed in every 
(1) 'Ev Tti xp-^ai^ oaxiou tou '^ipiunvfiou vaou ixtivcu Tou "SoXofiuiTa; huecu- 
fiiMoi. And again, in another part of the same chapter, "E|s(^jy Ss tau 
ta,au if 71 Ti^iauXidii fiiya Xi^offrpuiTOi to arakaior, us ci/uai, rou /x.iyiiXcu ixou 
Sa«S«». Phoca Descript. T. S. cap. 14. Colon. 1653. 
(2) Al/erganes, Alfragati, or Alfergani, flourished- about the year 
800, of our aera. Golius, Professor of Mathematics at Leyden, pub- 
lished the third and best translation of his writings, in I669. See 
JLalande's Astronomy, torn. \. p. 122. Paris, 1792. 
(3) " Totum antiqui sacri fundum." 
(4) 'EwToj xai iicTo;, ■^oixiXoi; f/,a^fjt,ii,poi;, ko.) y]/>i^7ffiv iyicxXXuvi/iil»);. 
" Intus exteriusque varlis marmoribus, et tessellato opere condecora- 
tura." P/ioccE Descript. T. S. cop. 14. Colon. 1656. p. 22. Leonis 
JtllatU STMMIKTA. 
