The courtyard is surrounded on three sides by a portico with two levels of arcades. The back wall of the portico, like the wall of the façade, was covered with mosaics. The fourth side of the court, toward the south, gives access to the prayer-hall. The minaret to the north, called the "Minaret of the Fiançée", is square with twin bays and is of ʾUmayyād construction; it is crowned with a Mamlūk spire which has been rebuilt in modern times. To the left of the photo, the construction raised on columns and covered with a dome seems to have been a treasury for the keeping of public funds under the ʿAbbāsīd governors of the city.
Jacques Ghislain de Maussion de Favières. Damascus, Baghdad: Capitals and lands of the caliphs. Translation to English by Edward J. Banks. Librairie orientale (Dar el-Mashreq), Beirut, Lebanon. 1972.
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