Right in the centre of the mosque is the huge rock upon which Abraham built his altar for Isaac, and upon which Ornan’s cattle threshed his grain, and where, the Mohammedans say, the Angel Gabriel will stand when he blows the last trump calling the people to judgment. At that time, according to Moslem belief, the souls of the human race will rush to this spot and present themselves before Mohammed and Christ, who will pass on their virtues and sins. After that all must go to the Pillar of Judgment and cross on the wire rope to the Mount of Olives. According to another Mohammedan story, the Moslems will be turned into fleas, and Mohammed himself into a sheep, in which form he will ascend to heaven with the faithful fleas in his wool. The rock is esteemed sacred by every Mohammedan. It is surrounded by an iron stockade which none is allowed to enter. It is about forty feet long and sixty feet wide, and rises some six feet out of the floor. It fills the whole inclosure and comes so close to the fence that one can touch it, or, if he is devout, as are most of the worshippers we see in the mosque, he can put his mouth through the bars and impress a kiss upon it. As we walk about the fence examining the rock our turbaned guide shows us its wonders. “Here,” says he, pointing to a round hole in one of the sides, “is the mark of Mohammed’s heel. It was from that spot that the holy Prophet ascended to heaven, and as he rose the rock started to go up with him holding fast to his heel. The Angel Gabriel had to put his hand upon it to keep it down, and here,” pointing to five curious marks, “are the places where Gabriel’s fingers rested when he did so.” [Illustration: Moslem pilgrims pray at the Mosque of Omar, which occupies the site of Solomon’s Temple. It is said that no faithful Jew will enter its inclosure, for fear of treading on the spot where once was the Holy of Holies] [Illustration: Every Friday devout Jews weep under the walls of the Mosque of Omar, mourning the loss of their temple. They repeat for hours their litany: “For the temple that is desolate.... We sit in solitude and mourn”] A little farther on the guide tells us that this rock is the centre of the earth, and that some believe it to be the gate of hell. He shows us a plate of jasper as big as a checker board, in which are three golden nails, saying that the plate originally contained nineteen nails which Mohammed had driven into it. One nail drops out at the end of each age of the Moslem cycle, and when the last nail is gone the end of the world will occur. The guide offers to let me pull out the last three nails for a dollar apiece, but I have no desire to hasten the Judgment Day, and therefore refuse. In that way I save the world. “The devil got at this plate one day,” so our consular _kavass_ tells me, “and was jerking out the nails at a great rate when the Angel Gabriel caught him and pulled him away.”