In Genesis 28:11-12, the rock that Jacob rested his head on and then ‘dreamed’ of the ascending “ladder” is located at the northern peak of Mount Moriah, which is the Jewish Temple Mount, Har HaBayit, called in Arabic Ḥaram ash-Sharīf ‘the Noble Sanctuary’. The rock itself became the sacred rock upon which the Jewish ‘Holy of Holies’ (qodesh ha-qodāshîm) of the Jewish Temple was founded, and this is the same “rock” (Arabic ṣakhra) that—through the restorative efforts of the Islamic Caliph Umar—was unearthed from under the rubble of the ruins of the Roman temple of Jupiter Capitolinus that was built subsequent to the destruction of the Jewish Second Temple. Later (c. 691 CE) this rock was protectively enshrined within the ‘Dome of the Rock’ (qubbat as-ṣakhra). At this stage we should also keep in mind that the city of Jerusalem as al-Quds (the Holy) gains that distinction and is qualified as such in relation to Qodesh ha-Qodāshîm (the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple). Read more
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