These are the petrified birds on the Dome of the Rock:
They consist of two marble blocks cut from the same stone, placed side by side so that they form an image of two birds standing on a vase. They can be viewed here on Google Street View.
In the past, travelers to Jerusalem described the birds and recorded various legends attached to them. In the 17th century, Evliyâ Çelebi seems to have been the first to do so, writing:
Ve herbir mermeri üstâd-ı mermer-bür birer san‘at ile biçmiş kim sahîfeteyni yan yana geldikde gûnâ-gûn kitâbeler ve eşkâl-i acîbe [vü] garîbeler nümâyândır. Hattâ bâb-ı (---) taşrasında Sahra-i şerîfe müteveccih oldukda bu kapunun sağ tarafında dîvâra kaplı mermerde iki horos tasvîri birbirine minkâr minkâra cenâhların küşâde kılup dururlar. Bi-emrillâh biçme ebrî seng-i elvânlarda böyle ibret-nümâ firâvândır. im‘ân-ı nazarla görüldükde dürlü dürlü eşkâller ve şükûfeler zâhir olur.
Each sort of marble [on the Dome of the Rock et al.] is the very best of its kind. These flagstones are so cut as to form pairs; placed one beside the other they produce many curious and marvelous designs. Even outside the [southern] gate, on entering the Dome of the Rock, there is the picture of two roosters, beak against beak, with outspread wings, on the encasing marble to the right-hand side of the gate. By divine decree (bi-amr Allāh) such marvelous things abound in the colors of the veined marble. When they are examined carefully, shapes and flowers of various types become apparent.
Evliyâ was followed next by Elzear Horn in the 18th century, who wrote:
Ad portam australem Templi Turcae habent utrinque locum orationis, sive mesquitam intra murum dolatis marmoribus exornatam, super quas stat una columba marmorea, quae se invicem aspiciunt, easque lapicidam intra marmor, dum illud dissecaret, ab ipsa natura sic formatas invenisse dicunt.
At the south door of the Temple [i.e. the Dome of the Rock] the Muslims have on each side a place of prayer, or mosque [!], which is decorated with hewn marble embedded inside the wall. Above each one of these [places of prayer] stands a marble dove, which stares at the other. They say that the stonecutter found those birds, which were formed by nature itself, inside the marble, when he cut it.
Horn's description is a bit confused and does not really match the birds as we know them today. This is likely because, as a Christian, he was barred from visiting the Dome of the Rock compound, and had to rely on the testimony of others.
In the 19th century, Solomon is mentioned in connection with the birds. Robert Burford and F. Catherwood (1834) noted the "the Birds of Solomon" on the Dome of the Rock. According to one legend, the birds are magpies which Solomon transformed into stone after they refused to honor Solomon's temple. This legend is recorded by Liévin de Hamme (English [1875], French [1869]), Isabel Burton (1875), and Elizabeth de Cosson (1884).
E.J. Hanauer recorded a legend about Solomon and the Birds which he published in two versions in 1904 and 1907:
The great King Solomon understood the language of beasts, birds, and fishes, and, when he had occasion to do so, could converse with all of them. One day, soon after he had completed the temple, as he was standing at a window of the royal palace, he overheard a conversation between a pair of birds that were sitting on the housetop. Presently the male, who was evidently trying to impress the female with his importance, exclaimed: “Solomon is a conceited fool! Why should he be so vain of this pile of buildings that he has raised? I, if I wished, could kick them all over in a few minutes.”
The king, greatly enraged by this pompous speech, summoned the offender into his presence and demanded what he meant by such an outrageous boast. “Your majesty,” replied the bird, “will, I am sure, forgive my audacity, when I explain that I was in the company of a female; since your majesty doubtless knows from experience that in such circumstances the temptation to boast is almost irresistible.” The monarch, forgetting his anger in his amusement, said with a smile, “Go your way this time, but see that you do not repeat the offense;” and the bird, after a profound obeisance, flew away to rejoin his mate.
He had hardly alighted before the female, unable to repress her curiosity, eagerly inquired why he had been summoned to the palace. “O,” said the impudent biped, “the king heard me tell you that, if I chose, I could kick down all his buildings in no time, and he sent for me to beg me not to do it.” Solomon, who, of course, overheard this remark also, was so indignant at the incorrigible vanity of its author that he at once turned both birds into stone. They remain to this day a reminder of the familiar saying, “The peace of mankind consists in guarding the tongue.”
The great Suleymān el Ḥakım was sitting one day near a window of his palace, listening to the love-talk of two pigeons upon the house-top. Said the male bird loftily: “Who is Suleymān the king? And what are all his buildings to be so proud of? Why, I, if I put my mind to it, could kick them down in a minute!”
Hearing this, Suleymān leant out of the window and called the boaster, asking how he could tell such a lie. “Your Majesty,” was the cringing reply, “will forgive me when I explain that I was talking to a female. You know one cannot help boasting in such circumstances.” The monarch laughed and bade the rogue begone, warning him never to speak in that tone again. The pigeon, after a profound reverence, flew to rejoin his mate.
The female at once asked why the king had called him. “Oh,” came the answer, “he had overheard what I was saying to you, and asked me not to do it.” So enraged was Suleymān at the irrepressible vanity of the speaker that he turned both birds into stone, as a warning to men not to boast, and to women not to encourage them.
Hanauer's legend originates in an old Sufi legend that is recorded in many classical sources.
Here is a photograph of the birds on the southern wall, as taken by Ernest Tatham Richmond before 1924:
And here is a photo of the birds on the southern wall taken some decades after the renovations that took place between 1956 and 1964:
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Today, the marble patterns on the Dome of the Rock continue to inspire the imagination of believers. Oddly, this includes some Christian polemicists who have identified some slabs that happen to be located near the petrified birds as representing "the devil's face."
It should be noted that the marble slabs which the polemicists are talking about are fairly recent. They were added to the Dome of the Rock as part of the abovementioned renovations which took place between 1956 and 1964.
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An interesting article which deals with images seen in marble is
Finbarr Barry Flood, “‘God’s Wonder’: Marble as Medium and the Natural Image in Mosques and Modernism,” West 86th 23.2 (2016): 168-219.
The Byzantines extensively employed the decorative technique of arranging marble slabs in symmetrical patterns. The Umayyads were most probably inspired by this technique, when they built the Dome of the Rock, and they likely reused marble slabs taken from Byzantine structures.
One of the Byzantine structures in which this technique is on display and which is discussed by Flood, is the Chora Church (AKA Kariye Camii) in Istanbul:
The technique is also used in the Church of Theotokos Kyriotissa (AKA Kalenderhane Camii) also in Istanbul:
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This is Part I of the Companion to my article "Solomon and the Petrified Birds on the Dome of the Rock." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 79.2 (2020): 271-286.
For Part II, click here.
For the Companion's main menu, click here.
Published October 2020
Updated September 2022