The tradition began when the current Caliph in Amman found his court was restless and acting up, so he moved everyone to Jerusalem, built the mosque, started the tradition to attract tourists who paid his court people running the concessions and all was well until the court got bored and the caliph moved them back to Amman returning Jerusalem to the dusty forgotten place it had been for centuries until after WWII when it again made news as the homeland of the Jews so all the muslims flocked there to kill them but that didn’t go well.
Oy, those crazy muslims.