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ssss1. Reynolds, again misunderstanding the Arabic, renders this “one cubit.”

ssss1. The Kiblah is a “point of adoration,” that is, the direction in which Mecca lies. In the Mohammedan mosques it is indicated by a small niche called a mihráb.

Another version of this conversation is, that when Ka‘ab proposed to set the praying-place behind the Sakhrah, ‘Omar reproved him, as has just been stated, for his Jewish proclivities, and added, “Nay, but we will place it in the sudr (‘breast or forepart’), for the prophet ordained that the Kiblah of our mosques should be in the forepart. I am not ordered,” said he, “to turn to the Sakhrah, but to the Ka‘abah.” Afterwards, when ‘Omar had completed the conquest of Jerusalem, and cleared away the dirt from the Sakhrah, and the Christians had entered into their engagements to pay tribute, the Muslims changed the name of the great Christian church from Caiyámah (Anastasis), to Camámah (dung), to remind them of their indecent treatment of the holy place, and to further glorify the Sakhrah itself.