Al - Aqsa Mosque (Arabic: المسجد الاقصى ‎ ‎ Al - Masjid al - ' Aqṣā, IPA: (ʔælˈmæsdʒɪd ælˈʔɑqsʕɑ) (listen), "the Farthest Mosque ''), also known as Al - Aqsa and Bayt al - Maqdis, is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. Whilst the entire site on which the silver - domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, seventeen gates, and four minarets, was itself historically known as the Al - Aqsa Mosque, today a narrower definition prevails, and the wider compound is usually referred to as al - Haram ash - Sharif ("the Noble Sanctuary ''), or the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al - Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration, when God directed him to turn towards the Kaaba.
the great mosque constructed in jerusalem at the site of the old temple is the
Al - Aqsa Mosque Al - Aqsa Mosque