In the Greek and Roman Empires, the Jerusalem Temple (Beit HaMikdosh) and the Ka’ba, the House of God (Baitullah) in Mecca were not as well known as the giant pagan Temples of Greece and Rome.

Yet just a few centuries after the looting of Rome, both of these cities and their sanctuaries, one almost unknown by the Romans and the other totally destroyed by the Romans, were destined to be viewed as the navel of the world throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, North Africa and west Asia.

Jerusalem was frequently portrayed by Christians and Jews at the center of their maps, and spoken about as the spiritual heart of their faith— as was Mecca by Muslims.

Much of the folklore about these two holy sites is very similar. The following fable, transmitted orally in both Arabic and Hebrew for many centuries and finally written down in several different versions in the 19th century, illustrates how these two holy places can be closely connected even though they are geographically separated by 765 miles. 

Some say this happened in the age of Adam or Noah, and others say in the generation when Abraham was born.

Two brothers who inherited a ‘valley to hilltop’ farm from their father divided the land in half so that each one could farm his own section. Over time, the older brother married and had four children,........

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