The Talmud indicates that the Stone marks the center of the world and serves as a cover for the Abyss ( Abzu) containing the raging waters of the Flood. īoth Jewish and Muslim traditions relate to what may lie beneath the Foundation Stone, the earliest of them found in the Talmud in the former and understood to date to the 12th and 13th centuries in the latter. The Stone-known as Even haShetiya in Hebrew and es-Sakhrah in Arabic-is considered the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. In Jewish tradition this is the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. The impression of the hand of the Archangel Gabriel, made as he restrained the Stone from rising, is nearby. The exposed bedrock directly under the dome-known as the Noble Rock to Muslims-is the spot from which Islamic tradition indicates Muhammad ascended to heaven, and according to a medieval Islamic tradition, the Stone tried to follow Muhammad as he ascended, leaving his footprint here while pulling up and hollowing out the cave below. The Dome of the Rock, whose English name is a translation of its Arabic name, Qubbat as-Sakhrah, is an Umayyad Muslim shrine at the Haram ash-Sharif ("Noble Sanctuary" in Arabic), known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the West. The cage-like structure just beyond the hole covers the stairway entrance to the cave The round hole at upper left penetrates to the Well of Souls below. The Foundation Stone in the floor of the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem. The site has never been subject to an archaeological investigation, as religious and political sensitivities preclude this. In Judaism, the site is known as the Holy of Holies (alluding to the former inner sanctuary within the Temple in Jerusalem) and in Christianity, is venerated as a possible site of the annunciation of John the Baptist, since Luke says it happened in the Temple.
The name has also been applied to a depression in the floor of this cave and a hypothetical chamber that may exist beneath it.
The name "Well of Souls" derives from a medieval Islamic legend that at this place the spirits of the dead can be heard awaiting Judgment Day. The Well of Souls ( Arabic: بئر الأرواح Bir al-Arwah sometimes translated Pit of Souls, Cave of Spirits, or Well of Spirits in Islam), also known in Christianity and Judaism by the time of the Crusades as the " Holy of Holies", is a partly natural, partly man-made cave located inside the Noble Rock (the "Foundation Stone" in Judaism) under the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem. "The Cave Under the Great Rock on Mount Moriah" known as the Well of Souls (Illustration from Stanley Lane-Poole's Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt, 1883)