"At the Kubbet-es-Sukrah he pointed out the place where Abraham was about to slay Isaac as a sacrifice, and the spot where the ark of the covenant was deposited, besides other places interesting to readers of the Bible. Then he showed us the footprint of Mohammed, where his foot last touched the earth before he ascended to heaven, and the marks of the hands of the angel who held the rock down to prevent its ascent with the Moslem prophet. In a cavern under the rock he showed the places, which are marked by small altars, where Abraham, David, Solomon, and Elijah offered up their prayers, and he pointed to an impression in the ceiling which is said to have been made by Mohammed's head. "The Moslems have a great many traditions concerning the rock, and it is very evident that they have allowed their imagination free-play in describing it. They say the rock was brought here from heaven, and that a river from Paradise flows beneath it and waters the palm on which it rests. They also declare that the trumpet of the last judgment will sound from this rock; and one of their stories is that the rock is suspended over a deep abyss without any support. Our guide was a native Christian, but it seemed to us that he had told these stories so often that he half believed them, in spite of their opposition to his own religious faith. [Illustration: WALL AT SOUTH-EAST CORNER OF THE TEMPLE AREA.] "From the buildings above-ground we went to the excavations and subterranean passages beneath. There was formerly some dispute as to the exact position of Solomon's Temple, owing to the difficulty of making explorations; but within the last twenty years many discoveries have been made, and the work of laying out the exact position of the Temple is still going on. The American and English societies engaged in it are entirely harmonious, and every year they are throwing new light on subjects of great importance to students of the Bible. They have spent large amounts of money in excavations among the substructions of the Temple, and settled many points of dispute. Anybody who wishes the details of what has been accomplished is referred to the book of Captain Warren on 'The Recovery of Jerusalem,' and to the reports of the Palestine Exploration Society.