[NCDoc]

Jerusalem became a city of importance only after King David made it his capital and built the first Jewish Temple there. Its importance to the Christians is similarly Biblical. Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran, but the Muslims claim a tradition that Mohammed ascended to heaven on his white horse from the Temple Mount.

[crystalk]

Not on his, or anyone else's, white horse, but on the mythical steed Buraq, which had aspects of various animals including a man's head and a peacock's tail!

Furthermore, Mad Mo is not stated to have so ascended from Jerusalem necessarily, but from a place of worship called "Al-Aqsa" that is, the furthest-away.

Since Jerusalem is only about 600 miles from Mecca, the Arabs were well aware of many places much further away than Jerusalem, such as Rome, India, Constantinople, Egypt, Spain, China, etc.

It is only when it became politically convenient to Muslims, to claim they had some right to Eretz Yisroel, that they decided the one-night stand or journey had taken place from Jerusalem rather than someplace else!