Why was the 'dome of the rock' important?

Answer 1

The Koran recounts, in Sura 17 Verse 1, a miraculous night flight by air. Oral traditions in the Hadith explain that the Angel Gabriel took the Prophet to Jerusalem to pray at the Temple and then to visit heaven. Many central Islamic traditions like praying 5 times a day come from this. As a result, the Temple Mount became a major sacred site in Islam. When Islamic forces under the Caliph Omar took Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire, Omar did 2 noteworthy things: Allow Jews into Jerusalem (under Byzantine rule, they were excluded), and clean the trash and ruins from the Temple Mount. This uncovered the rock, where impressions in the rock surface were taken to be the hoof-prints of the heavenly steed that carried the Prophet on his visit. As a result, the rock became the focus of Islamic pilgrimage. The building of the Dome of the Rock over that rock was a natural (and beautiful) response to the belief that this rock was the site of the Prophet's visit.

Was this rock also the site of the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple? Possibly, but there are arguments that suggest that the Holy of Holies was farther to the west. Archeology on the Temple Mount is extraordinarily difficult because of the three religions with claims of one sort or another on that piece of land.