Immediately after the surrender of the city (October 11, A. D. 1187) the Moslems rushed to the TEMPLE (Templum Domini, ante p. 12) in thousands. “The imauns and the doctors and expounders of the wicked errors of Mahomet,” says Abbot Coggleshale, “first ascended to the Temple of the Lord, called by the infidels _Beit Allah_, (the house of God,) in which, as a place of prayer and religion, they place their great hope of salvation. With horrible bellowings they proclaimed the law of Mahomet, and vociferated, with polluted lips, ALLAH _acbar_--ALLAH _acbar_ (GOD is victorious). They defiled all the places that are contained within the Temple; i. e. the place of the presentation, where the mother and glorious Virgin Mary delivered the Son of God into the hands of the just Simeon; and the place of the confession, looking towards the porch of Solomon, where the Lord judged the woman taken in adultery. They placed guards that no Christian might enter within the seven atria of the Temple; and as a disgrace to the Christians, with vast clamour, with laughter and with mockery, they hurled down the golden cross from the pinnacle of the building, and dragged it with ropes throughout the city, amid the exulting shouts of the infidels and the tears and lamentations of the followers of Christ.” When every Christian had been removed from the precincts of the Temple, Saladin proceeded with vast pomp to say his prayers in the _Beit Allah_, the holy house of God, or “Temple of the Lord,” erected by the Caliph Omar. He was preceded by five camels laden with rose-water, which he had procured from Damascus, and he entered the sacred courts to the sound of martial music, and with his banners streaming in the wind. The _Beit Allah_, “the Temple of the Lord,” was then again consecrated to the service of one God and his prophet Mahomet; the walls and pavements were washed and purified with rose-water; and a pulpit, the labour of Noureddin, was erected in the sanctuary.[74]