by Al Bokharil, but there is one short mention of it in the Kuran, Sura
xviii.

"Glory be to him who carried his servant by night from the sacred temple
of Mecca to the temple that is more remote, i.e. Jerusalem."

The vision, however, looms so large in his followers' minds, and
exercised so profound an influence over their regard for Mahomet, that it
throws some light, upon the measure of his ascendancy during his last
years at Mecca, and establishes beyond dispute the inspired character of
his Prophetship in the imaginations of the few Believers. There have been
solemn and wordy disputes by theologians as to whether he made the
journey in the flesh, or whether his spirit alone crossed the dread
portals dividing our night from the celestial day.

He was lying in the Kaaba, so runs the legend, when the Angel of the Lord
appeared to him, and after having purged his heart of all sin, carried
him to the Temple at Jerusalem. He penetrated its sacred enclosure and
saw the beast Borak, "greater than ass, smaller than mule," and was told
to mount. The Faithful still show the spot at Jerusalem where his steed's
hoof marked the ground as he spurned it with flying feet. With Gabriel by
his side, mounted on a beast mighty in strength, Mahomet scaled the
appalling spaces and came at last to the outer Heaven, before the gate
that guards the celestial realms. The angel knocked upon the brazen doors
and a voice within cried:

"Who art thou, and who is with thee?"

"I am Gabriel," came the answer, "and this is Mahomet."