Legends of the
Dome of the Rock:
10 / THE WELL OF THE SOULS
In the floor of the holy cavern in the Foundation
Stone, which serves as a prayer place for the Moslems, there is a big round
marble slab. It is said that this slab rests upon the entrance to another cave,
sealed and hidden in the depths. All who step on the slab hear a dull echo
emanating from the hollow cave. The Arabs call it Bir al-Arnah — Well of
the Souls or Spirits. They say that here the souls of the dead gather to pray
and worship.
Since all who descended into the cave immediately
perished, it was sealed up. Rabbi David ben-Zimra (RaDBaZ), who lived in
Jerusalem in the sixteenth century, tells: "A cave is to be found under
the Dome [of the Rock], into which the first kings sent their men, and they
perished. And then it was sealed with earth."
It is said that in this sealed cave were hidden many
of the treasures of the Temple. In 1911, during the scientific excavations in
the city of David, at the edge of Mount Moriah, a rumor spread that the English
excavators had penetrated at night, by hidden labyrinths, into the sealed cave
in the depths of the Foundation Stone, and had absconded with the Temple
treasures. The rumor caused great excitement in Jerusalem for many days.
Source:
RaDBaZ, She’elot ve-Teshuboth..
Culled
from: Zev Vilnay: Legends of Jerusalem, Jewish Publication Society,
1973.
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