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The rebuilding of the Kaaba by Quraysh: the burnt covering, the stolen treasure and the serpent, the foundations of Ibrahim, the division into shares, the arbitration of al-Amin for the Black Stone, and the Kaaba of Ibn az-Zubayr.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
The chapter of the rebuilding of the Kaaba by Quraysh, before prophethood. Al-Bayhaqi treated it, and the well-known account is that Quraysh built it after the marriage of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to Khadija, at thirty-five years of age, as we have already mentioned. Al-Bayhaqi then treated the building of the Kaaba in the time of Ibrahim, as we have related in his story, and inserted the hadith of Ibn Abbas previously cited in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, and mentioned what is reported of Israiliyyat about its building in the time of Adam: and this is not sound, for the apparent meaning of the Quran indicates that Ibrahim was the first to build it from the start, the first to lay its foundations; and its site was exalted before that, a place held in honor and glory through all ages and times. Allah the Most High said: "The first House established for the people is indeed the one at Bakka, blessed and a guidance for the universe. In it are clear signs, among them the place where Abraham stood; and whoever enters it is safe.
And it is a duty toward Allah upon the people, those able to make the pilgrimage to the House", the verses of Al ’Imran, from the ninety-sixth to the ninety-seventh. And it is established in the two Sahihs, from Abu Dharr: I said: O Messenger of Allah, which sanctuary was established first? He said: "the Sacred Mosque." I said: then which? He said: "the Aqsa Mosque." I said: how much between them? He said: "forty years." And we have already spoken of that, and that the Aqsa Mosque was founded by Israil, who is Ya’qub (peace be upon him). And in the two Sahihs: this land, Allah made sacred on the day He created the heavens and the earth: it is therefore sacred, by the sacredness of Allah, until the Day of Resurrection.
And al-Bayhaqi said: the hafiz Abu Abdallah informed us: Abu Abdallah as-Saffar told us, from Ahmad ibn Mihran, from Ubaydallah, from Isra’il, from Abu Yahya, from Mujahid, from Abdallah ibn Amr: the House was before the earth by two thousand years, and the earth was stretched out from beneath it, according to His word: "and the earth will be stretched out", the third verse of al-Inshiqaq: stretched out from beneath it. Mansur followed him up with the like of it from Mujahid.
I say: this is very strange, as if it were among the two crushed utterances that befell Abdallah ibn Amr on the day of Yarmuk: he would relate from them Israiliyyat, in which are strange things and oddities. Then al-Bayhaqi said: the hafiz Abu Abdallah informed us: Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdallah al-Baghdadi told us, from Yahya ibn Uthman ibn Salih, from Abu Salih al-Juhani: Ibn Lahi’a told me, from Yazid ibn Abi al-Khayr, from Abdallah ibn Amr ibn al-’As: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Allah sent Jibril to Adam and Hawwa and said to them: build Me a house. Jibril traced out for them the outline, and Adam began to dig while Hawwa carried, until water gushed up from beneath, and it was called out from beneath it: enough, O Adam. When they had built it, Allah inspired him to circumambulate it: and it was said to him: you are the first of men, and this is the first house. Then the generations succeeded one another until Nuh made pilgrimage to it. Then the generations succeeded one another until Ibrahim raised its foundations. Al-Bayhaqi said: Ibn Lahi’a alone reports it thus, as the Prophet’s words: I say: he is weak, and its stopping at Abdallah ibn Amr is stronger and firmer. And Allah knows best.
And Rabi’a said: ash-Shafi’i informed us, from Sufyan, from Ibn Abi Labid, from Muhammad ibn Ka’b al-Quradhi or another: Adam made pilgrimage, and the angels met him and said: blessed be your rite, O Adam: we made pilgrimage before you by two thousand years. And Yunus ibn Bukayr reported, from Ibn Ishaq: Baqiyya told me, or he said a reliable man of the people of Medina, from Urwa ibn az-Zubayr: there is no prophet but he made pilgrimage to the House, except for Hud and Salih. I say: we have already related the pilgrimage of both: the intent is pilgrimage to the site and its place, even if there was no building there. And Allah knows best. Al-Bayhaqi then inserted the hadith of Ibn Abbas, previously cited, in the story of Ibrahim (peace be upon him), in its long and complete form: it is in the Sahih of al-Bukhari.
Al-Bayhaqi then reported, from the hadith of Simak ibn Harb, from Khalid ibn ’Ar’ara: a man asked Ali about the word of the Most High: "The first House established for the people is indeed the one at Bakka, blessed and a guidance for the universe": is it the first house built on earth? He said: no, but it is the first house in which were placed for the people blessing and guidance, and the Maqam of Ibrahim: and whoever enters it is safe. If you wish, I shall inform you of its building: Allah the Most High inspired Ibrahim to build a house on the earth: he marked its site with a stroke of his elbow. Allah then sent to him the Sakina, which is a wind having a head: one of the two followed its companion until it arrived, then it coiled at the site of the House, as the serpent coils. Ibrahim built until he reached the place of the Hijr, and said to his son: bring me a stone. Ismail searched for a stone until he brought him one, and he found the Black Stone already fitted. He said to his father: whence is this to you? He said: He who depends not on your building brought it: Jibril brought it from heaven and completed it.
Time passed over the House, and it fell to ruin: the Amaliqa built it; then it fell to ruin, and Jurhum built it; then it fell to ruin, and Quraysh built it: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was then a young man. When they wished to raise the Black Stone they disputed over it and said: let the first man to come out of this alley judge between us. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was the first to come out to them: he judged between them that they place it in a cloak, and that all the tribes together raise it.
And Abu Dawud at-Tayalisi said: Hammad ibn Salama, Qays and Sallam all reported to us, from Simak ibn Harb, from Khalid ibn ’Ar’ara, from Ali ibn Abi Talib: when the House fell to ruin after Jurhum, Quraysh built it. When they wished to place the Hijr they disputed: who would place it? They agreed that the first to enter by this door would place it. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) entered by the door of Banu Shayba: he called for a garment, placed the Hijr in its middle, then commanded each clan to seize a part of the garment: they raised it, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took it and placed it.
Ya’qub ibn Sufyan said: Asbagh ibn Faraj informed me: Ibn Wahb informed me, from Yunus, from Ibn Shihab: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) reached the age of the dream, a woman kindled a fire at the Kaaba: a spark leapt from her censer into the garments of the Kaaba, and they caught fire. So they tore it down. When they rebuilt it and reached the place of the Rukn, Quraysh disputed over the Rukn: which of the tribes would have the raising of it? They said: come, let us take as arbiter the first who appears to us. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) appeared to them, a young man wearing a mantle of Namira: so they took him as arbiter. He commanded that the Rukn be brought, and it was placed in a garment: then he brought out the chief of every tribe and gave him a side of the garment: then he climbed up himself, and they raised the Rukn to him: and it was he who placed it. And his standing increased year by year, until they called him al-Amin before the revelation came down upon him: and they would not slaughter a fat sheep but they sought him out, that he might invoke upon it for them.
This account is fine, and it is of the sira of az-Zuhri. In it is a strangeness: his word: when he reached the age of the dream: and the well-known account is that this was while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was thirty-five years old: and this is what Muhammad ibn Ishaq stated explicitly.
And Musa ibn ’Uqba said: the building of the Kaaba was fifteen years before prophethood: and thus said Mujahid, Urwa, Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mu’tim and others: and Allah knows best. And Musa ibn ’Uqba said: between the Fijar and the building of the Kaaba were fifteen years. I say: the Fijar war and the pact of the virtuous were in one year, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was twenty years old: and this supports what Muhammad ibn Ishaq said. And Allah knows best.
Musa ibn ’Uqba said: what drove Quraysh to its building: the torrents used to come upon it from above, from above the dam they had made, and it collapsed, and they feared water would enter it. And there was a man called Mulayh who stole the perfume of the Kaaba: so they intended to raise its building and heighten its door, that none enter it but whom they willed. They prepared for that provisions and workers, then set out at dawn to demolish it, in trepidation and fear that Allah, who intended what they intended, might prevent them. The first man to climb it and demolish part of it was al-Walid ibn al-Mughira: and when they saw what al-Walid did, they followed one after another and tore it down. And they marveled at that. When they wished to set about its building they brought forward their workers: and no man among them was able to pass before the place of a single step. They claimed they saw a serpent that had encircled the House, its head at its tail: and they feared it with intense fear, and were afraid they had fallen into ruin through what they had done.
And the Kaaba was their shield: it kept the people from them, and it was their glory: when it fell into their hands and their affair became confused, al-Mughira ibn Abdallah ibn Amr ibn Makhzum rose among them: he mentioned the counsel he had given them, and his commanding them not to dispute nor envy one another in its building, and to divide it into four quarters, and not to bring into its building unlawful wealth. And he mentioned that when they resolved upon that, the serpent went off into the sky and vanished from them: and they saw that this was from Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He said: some people say: a bird snatched it away, and cast it toward Ajyad.
And Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar said: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was thirty-five years old, Quraysh gathered for the building of the Kaaba: they wished to roof it but feared to demolish it: and it was only a dry-stone wall above a man’s height: so they intended to raise it and roof it. Some men stole the treasure of the Kaaba: and it was in a well inside the Kaaba. And the one with whom the treasure was found was Duwayk, freedman of Banu Mulayh ibn Amr ibn Khuzayma: Quraysh cut off his hand: and Quraysh claim that those who stole it had placed it with Duwayk. And the sea had cast a ship onto Jeddah, belonging to a merchant of the Romans: it broke apart, and they took its timber and prepared it for roofing it. Al-Umawi said: this ship belonged to Caesar, king of the Romans: it carried building tools of marble, wood and iron: Caesar dispatched it, with Baqum the Roman, to the church which the Persians had burned in Abyssinia. When it reached its anchorage at Jeddah, Allah sent a wind upon it which dashed it to pieces.
Ibn Ishaq said: there was in Mecca a Coptic man, a carpenter: so they made ready among themselves some of what would mend it. And there was a serpent that came out of the well of the Kaaba, into which whatever was dedicated to it was cast each day: it would spread out upon the wall of the Kaaba: and it was among the things they dreaded: none could draw near it but it would hiss and rear and open its mouth: and they feared it. One day as it leaned upon the wall of the Kaaba as it was wont to do, Allah sent a bird upon it which snatched it away and departed with it. Quraysh said: we hope that Allah the Most High is pleased with what we intend: we have a bonded craftsman, and we have timber, and Allah has rid us of the serpent.
And as-Suhayli related from Razin: a thief entered the Kaaba in the days of Jurhum to steal its treasure: the well collapsed upon him, until they came, brought him out, and took from him what he had taken. Then this well was dwelt in by a serpent, with a head like the head of a kid, white of belly and black of back: it dwelt there five hundred years: and it is the one Muhammad ibn Ishaq mentioned.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: when they had resolved on its demolition and building, Abu Wahb, Amr ibn ’A’idh ibn Abd ibn ’Imran ibn Makhzum rose: and Ibn Hisham said: ’A’idh ibn ’Imran ibn Makhzum: he took a stone from the Kaaba: it leapt from his hand until it returned to its place. He said: O company of Quraysh, bring into its building nothing of your earnings but what is pure: into it enters not the bride-price of a harlot, nor the price of usury, nor the usurpation from any of the people. And the people were attributing this speech to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira ibn Abdallah ibn Umar ibn Makhzum. Then Ibn Ishaq inclined to the view that the speaker was Abu Wahb ibn Amr: and he was the Prophet’s maternal uncle (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and he was noble and praised.
Ibn Ishaq said: Quraysh then divided the Kaaba into shares: the share of the door was for Banu Abd Manaf and Zuhra and whoever joined with them: and the share between the Black Rukn and the Yemenite Rukn was for Banu Makhzum, with tribes of Quraysh who joined them: and the back of the Kaaba was for Banu Jumah and Sahm: and the share of the Hijr was for Banu Abd ad-Dar ibn QuSayy, for Banu Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza, and for Banu Adi ibn Ka’b: and that is the Hatim. Then the people feared to demolish it and drew back from it. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said: I shall begin it for you. He took the pick, then stood upon it saying: O Allah, stay them not: we intend only good. Then he demolished at the side of the two Rukns. The people waited that night and said: let us see: if he is struck we shall have demolished nothing of it and shall restore it as it was; and if nothing strikes him, Allah is pleased with what we have done of its demolition. In the morning al-Walid went on with his work: he demolished, and the people demolished with him, until the demolition brought them to the foundation, the foundation of Ibrahim (peace be upon him): and they came upon green stones, like teeth interlocking one with another. And in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from Yazid ibn Ruman: like the humps of camels. as-Suhayli said: I deem the sira’s version, like the teeth, an error for: like the tongues. And Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: one of those who relate hadiths informed me that a man of Quraysh, among those demolishing it, thrust a lever between two of its stones to pluck out one of them: and when the stone moved, Mecca entire quaked: and they abandoned that foundation.
And Musa ibn ’Uqba said: and Ibn Abbas claimed that the noblewomen of Quraysh used to relate that a man of Quraysh, when they gathered to remove the stones and came to the foundation of Ibrahim and Ismail (peace be upon them), took to a stone of the first foundation and lifted it, not knowing it was of the first foundation. The people saw a flash beneath the stone that all but blinded the man: and the stone slipped from his hand and fell back into its place. The man and the builders fled in alarm: and when the stone covered what was beneath it, back in its place, they returned to their building and said: move not this stone, nor anything about it.
Ibn Ishaq said: I was told that Quraysh found in the Rukn a writing in Syriac, and they knew not what it was, until a man of the Jews read it for them: and it was: I am Allah, Lord of Bakka: I created it on the day I created the heavens and the earth, and shaped the sun and the moon, and I have surrounded it with seven angels, devout, who will not cease until its two mountains cease: and Ibn Hisham said: meaning its two mountains: blessed for its people in water and milk.
Ibn Ishaq said: I was told they found at the Maqam a writing in which: Mecca, the sacred land of Allah: its provision comes to it by three roads: let not the first of its people monopolize it. And Layth ibn Abi Sulaym claimed that they found in the Kaaba, forty years before the prophethood of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), if what is mentioned is true, written therein: whoever sows good harvests joy, and whoever sows evil harvests regret: you commit evil deeds and are recompensed good deeds! Since: as grapes are not gathered from thorns.
And Sa’id ibn Yahya al-Umawi said: Mu’ammar ibn Sulayman ar-Raqqi reported to us, from Abdallah ibn Bishr az-Zuhri, raising the hadith to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): three sheets were found at the Maqam. In the first sheet: I am Allah, Lord of Bakka: I fashioned it on the day I fashioned the sun and the moon, and surrounded it with seven devout angels, and blessed its people in meat and milk. In the second sheet: I am Allah, Lord of Bakka: I created kinship, and drew it from My name: whoever joins it, I shall join him, and whoever cuts it, I shall cut him off. In the third sheet: I am Allah, Lord of Bakka: I created good and evil and decreed it: blessed is he by whose hands I cause good to run, and woe to him by whose hands I cause evil to run.
Ibn Ishaq said: then the tribes of Quraysh gathered the stones for its building, each tribe gathering upon its share: then they built until the building reached the place of the Rukn: and they disputed over it, each tribe wishing to raise it to its place before the others, until they were at odds and entered alliances and prepared for fighting. The Banu Abd ad-Dar brought a basin filled with blood: then they covenanted, they and Banu Adi ibn Ka’b ibn Lu’ay, unto death: and they plunged their hands into that blood in the basin: and they were named the Lappers of Blood. Quraysh remained so for four or five nights. Then they gathered in the sanctuary, consulted and divided evenly. Some of the narrators claim that Abu Umayya ibn al-Mughira ibn Abdallah ibn Umar ibn Makhzum, who was then the eldest of Quraysh, said: O company of Quraysh, place among you, for what you differ upon, the first who enters by this door of the mosque, to judge between you. They did so: and the first to enter was the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). When they saw him they said: this is al-Amin: we are content: this is Muhammad.
When he came to them and they informed him of the matter, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: bring me a garment. It was brought: he took the Rukn and placed it in it with his hand, then said: let every clan seize a side of the garment, then raise it all together. They did so until they brought it to its place: and he placed it with his own hand (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), then built upon it. And Quraysh used to call the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) al-Amin.
And Imam Ahmad said: Abd as-Samad told us, from Thabit, meaning Abu Zayd, from Hilal, meaning Ibn Khabbab, from Mujahid, from his freedman, who is Sa’ib ibn Abdallah: he told me that he was among those who built the Kaaba in the Jahiliyya. He said: I had a stone I carved myself, worshipping it apart from Allah. I would bring curdled milk, of which I took the first share for myself, and pour it upon it: then the dog would come and lick it, then lick it again and urinate upon it. We built until we reached the place of the Hijr, and no one saw the Hijr: and behold, it was in the middle of our stones, like a man’s head, such that a man’s face could barely be seen from it. One party of Quraysh said: we shall place it; and others said: we shall place it. They said: set between yourselves an arbiter: the first man to come up from the defile. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came: they said: your al-Amin has come to you. They spoke to him: he placed it in a garment, then called their clans: they raised its sides: and it was he who placed it (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
Ibn Ishaq said: the Kaaba in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was eighteen cubits: it was clothed in qibatiyya, then afterward in burud: and the first to clothe it in brocade was al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. I say: they had excluded from it the Hijr: which is six or seven cubits on the side of Syria: and that was because the means fell short for them, that is, they were not able to build it upon the foundations of Ibrahim: and they gave the Kaaba a single door on the side of the east, and made it high, lest just anyone enter it: they would admit whom they willed and bar whom they willed. And it is established in the two Sahihs, from A’isha: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "do you not see that your people withheld the means? Were it not that your people are recent in disbelief, I would demolish the Kaaba, and make for it an eastern door and a western door, and bring into it the Hijr."
And that is why, when Ibn az-Zubayr gained power, he built it as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had indicated: and it came in the utmost splendor and beauty, complete, upon the foundations of the Khalil: two doors reaching to the ground, eastern and western: the people would enter by this one and leave by the other. And when al-Hajjaj killed Ibn az-Zubayr he wrote to Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who was then the caliph, about what Ibn az-Zubayr had done: and they believed he had done that of his own initiative: so he commanded it be restored to what it had been: they set upon the Syrian wall and tore it down, brought out of it the Hijr, and sank its stones into the ground of the Kaaba: its door was raised, the western one was closed, and the eastern one continued as it was. Then, in the time of al-Mahdi, or his father al-Mansur, Malik was consulted about restoring it to what Ibn az-Zubayr had made: and Malik said: I detest that the kings make of it a playground. So it was left as it is: and so it is until now.
As for the Sacred Mosque: the first to push back the houses around the Kaaba was Umar ibn al-Khattab: he bought them from their people and demolished them. Then, in the time of Uthman, houses were bought and it was enlarged within them. Then when Ibn az-Zubayr took charge he strengthened its building, beautified its walls and multiplied its doors, without any other enlargement. Then when Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan took sole command he increased the height of its walls: and he commanded that the Kaaba be clothed in brocade: and the one who undertook that by his order was al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. And we have already mentioned the story of the building of the House and the hadiths reported of that in our commentary on surah al-Baqara, at His word: and when Ibrahim raises the foundations of the House with Ismail.
Ibn Ishaq said: when they finished the building and built it as they wished, az-Zubayr ibn Abd al-Muttalib said, concerning the serpent for whose sake Quraysh had feared the building of the Kaaba:
I marvel that the eagle has braced itself toward the serpent, while it is in turmoil for it.
There would be for it at times a coiling, and at times a leaping.
When we rose to the foundations it tensed, making the building dreadful: and we were fearful.
When we feared the scourge, there came an eagle whose swooping lunged for it.
It clasped it to itself: then the building was left to us, with no veil for it.
So we rose in company to a building whose foundations and soil are ours.
On the morning we raise its foundation, no garments on those who would level us.
The King has honored the Banu Lu’ay by it: its root shall not vanish from among them.
There the Banu Adi have mustered, and Murra, whom Kilab precedes.
The King has lodged us there in honor: and from Allah the reward is sought.
And we have already related, in a chapter, how Allah warded off from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) the horrors of the Jahiliyya: that he and his uncle al-Abbas carried the stones: and that when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) placed his izar beneath the stones, upon his shoulder, he was forbidden to strip off his izar: and he returned it to its first manner.