pressure of his hands upon the eyeballs, gave place to an atmosphere of
roseate light, in the fulness of which he saw the House of God projected
by Solomon and rebuilt by Herod. The realism of the apparition was
absolute, and comparison unavoidable. That he, familiar with the glory
of the conception of the Israelite, should be thought blinded by this
_Beit Allah_ of the Arab, so without grace of form or lines, so primitive
and expressionless, so palpably uninspired by taste, or genius, or the
Deity it was designed to honor, restored him at once: indeed, in the
succeeding reaction, he found it difficult to keep down resentment.
Dropping his hands, he took another survey of the shrouded pile, and
swept all the square under eye.

He beheld a crowd of devotees at the northeast corner of the House, and
over their heads two small open structures which, from descriptions
often heard, he recognized as praying places. A stream of worshippers
was circling around the marble base of the Most Holy, some walking,
others trotting; these, arriving at the northeast corner, halted--the
Black Stone was there! A babel of voices kept the echoes of the
enclosure in unremitting exercise. The view taken, the Jew said,
calmly:

"Blessed be Allah! I will go forward."

In his heart he longed to be in Constantinople--Islam, it was clear,
would lend him no ear; Christendom might be more amenable.

He was carried next through the Gate of the Sons of the Old Woman;
thence to the space in front of the well Zem-Zem; mindful of the prayers
and prostrations required at each place, and of the dumb servants who
went with him.