date of the Journey is not clear, but is celebrated as though it took place before the Hijrah and after Muhammad's visit to the people of Ta'if. The normative view amongst Sunni Muslims who ascribe a specific date to the event is that it took place on the 27th of Rajab, slightly over a year before Hijrah. This would correspond to the 26th of February 621 in the Western calendar. In Twelver Iran, Rajab 27 is the day of Muhammad's first calling or Mab'as. The al-Aqsa Mosque and surrounding area is now the third-holiest place on earth for Muslims. Many sects and offshoots belonging to Islamic mysticism interpret Muhammad's night ascent – the Isra and Miʿraj – to be an out-of-body experience through nonphysical environments, unlike the Sunni Muslims or mainstream Islam. The mystics claim Muhammad was transported to the farthest place of worship and then onward to the Seven Heavens, even though "the apostle's body remained where it was." Historical issues Jerusalem site The general consensus of modern Muslim scholars is that the Isra and Mi’raj were specific to a literal building, called Masjid Al-Aqsa, the farthest mosque, and that Muhammad did indeed go to a physical location at which a masjid structure (building) was already built. Minority Muslim groups have also regarded the journey as an out-of-body experience. Watt and Welch suggest that "the word masjid, which is used in the surah above literally translates as a 'place of prostration/worship' and thus indicates any place of worship, not necessarily a building." One issue with a physical interpretation of this story is that no city for the location of this mosque is mentioned. Tradition sometimes associates it with Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, but there is no historical evidence for a building there during Muhammad's lifetime. The first and second temples were destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans, respectively, the latter more than five centuries before Muhammad's life. After the initially successful Jewish revolt against Heraclius, the Jewish population resettled in Jerusalem for a short period of time from AD 614 to 630 and immediately started to restore the temple on the Temple Mount and build synagogues in Jerusalem. After the Jewish population was expelled a second time from Jerusalem and shortly before Heraclius retook the city (AD 630), a small synagogue was already in place on the Temple Mount. This synagogue was reportedly demolished after Heraclius retook