Triaff, Ekf,wan, and HopeJ^71to the doors of th e mosque, where a white an im al Ooo king som ething like
a cross between a muJe and a donkey, but with wings) was waiting for
them. He mounted the animal, which was called al-Buraq, and started
with Gabriel toward Jerusalem. There Muhammad met a group of
prophets who had preceded him (Abraham, Moses, and others), and he
led a group prayer with them on the Temple site. When the prayer was
over, the Prophet was raised with the Angel Gabriel beyond space and
time. On his way, rising through the seven heavens, he again met the var-
ious prophets, and his vision of the heavens and of the beauty of those
horizons permeated his being. H e at last reached the LoUis of the UmlOst
Boundary (Sldrat al-Mulltaha). This was where the Prophet received the
injunction of the five daily prayers and Revelation of the verse that estab-
lished the elements of the Muslim creed (ai-aqidflh): 11
The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord,
as do the believers. Each one believes in God, His angeb, His books, and
His Messenger~. \'(ie make no distinction bet\\'een one and another of I-lis
i\fessengers. And they say: "\,<Ie hear, and we obey: [we seek] Your forgive-
ness, our Lord, and to You is the end of all journeys.,,\ 2fil uhammad was taken back to Jerusalem by the Angel Gabriel and al-
Buraq, and from there to .Mecca. On rhe way back, he came upon some
caravans thar were also traveling to Mecca. It \vas still night when they
reached the Kaba enclosure. The angel and al-Buraq lefr, and Muhammad
proceeded to the home of U m Hani, one of his most trusted Com-
panions. He gave her an account of what had happened to him, and she
advised him not to tell anybody about it, which l\Iuhammad refused to do.
Later on, the Quran wa~ to report this experience in 1\'0 different pas-
sages. One is in the surah whose title, "A1-1sra" (fhe Nocturnal Voyage),
directly refers to the event:
Glory to He \"'<Tho took His st:rvant for a journey by night from the most
sacred mosgue to th{' farthest mosque, whose precincts \Vc blessed, in
order that \\it: might show him some of Our signs: for He is the One Who
hears and sees [all thingsj.13It is also in dle surah "An-Najm" (The Star):