It Is The Quran That Informs Us All of the Two Temples That Existed in Jerusalem

Where does Stephen Rosenberg, a fellow of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research in Jerusalem, find proof of a Temple on Haram al-Sharif?

In the Quran!

He writes:

...let's turn to their own sources. The Dome of the Rock was built during the caliphate of Abdul al-Malik and completed in 692 CE. It stands directly over the extensive rock which, by Muslim tradition, was the landing and departure point of Muhammad on his steed El-Burak during his Night Journey from Mecca. The "evidence" is the foot and hoof marks on the rock - a cultic relic from early days.

These marks also indicate that it is from here, and to here, that God will come and go at the End of Days. As His direction of travel is not known, the Dome of the Rock was built facing the four winds of heaven. It has no focus except the central rock, and entrances on all four sides. Does the central rock indicate the presence of a Jewish Temple? Not necessarily, but the Koran itself now makes that clear.

The prophet's night journey is described in Surah 17: "Glory be to Him who made His servant go by night from the Sacred Temple [Mecca] to the farther Temple [Al-Aksa, Jerusalem], whose surroundings We have blessed..." It goes on to say, "We solemnly declared to the Israelites: 'Twice you shall commit great evil in the land... and We sent against you a formidable army which ravaged your land... and when the prophecy of your second transgression came to be fulfilled, We sent another army to afflict you and to enter the Temple, as the former entered it before..."

Thus the Koran itself gives us the evidence of the destruction of the two Temples that had stood on the site of Al-Aksa.

Nothing could be clearer.

==================


Source

and in transliteration:

17:7 In ahsantum ahsantumli-anfusikum wa-in asa/tum falaha fa-itha jaawaAAdu al-akhirati liyasoo-oo wujoohakum waliyad khulooal masjida kama dakhaloohu awwala marratin waliyu tabbiroo maAAalaw tatbeeran

See, too, here and this source which stresses the two calamaties of the destructions of two Temples:

After the cryptic allusion to the Night Journey in verse 1, it continues (verses 2-8) with a warning to the Jews. Allah previously warned them that twice they “would they do mischief on the earth and be elated with mighty arrogance” (v. 4). Ibn Kathir elaborates: “Allah tells us that He made a declaration to the Children of Israel in the Scripture, meaning that He had already told them in the Book which He revealed to them, that they would cause mischief on the earth twice, and would become tyrants and extremely arrogant, meaning they would become shameless oppressors of people.”