Marwan-e-masjid

This praying area, which is underground and on

the south-east side of the al-Aqsa compound is

the Marwan-e-Masjid and has recently been

restored. When the Crusaders had control of the

mosque they used to use this area as stables for

their horses and it became known as Solomon’s

stables.

Although known traditionally as ‘Solomon’s

stables’, the original building is unlikely to date

as far back as Prophet Sulaiman (upon him be

peace) and can more plausibly be attributed to

Herod the Great who substantially extended

the Temple Mount platform during his reign.

Holes can be seen on the base of many of the

columns which were made by the Crusaders to

thread rope to tie their horses. It is estimated

that 400 horses were kept here at one time.

Islamic tradition credits a caliph named

Marwan I with transforming this area of the

vaults into a series of usable rooms, rather

than just going down to the bedrock directly,

and regards the location as having originally

been intended as a mosque (which is thus

known as the Marwani mosque). In 1996, the

Palestinian Waqf converted the area (which

had from crusader times been mostly empty)

into a modern mosque, capable of housing

7,000 people.

References: Wikipedia