(No transcript was taken at the time, so the words are not verbatim. The version above is commonly seen, and was said by Huxley to be fair in substance, if not wholely accurate. The letter excerpt is in Leonard Huxley (ed.), Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley (1916), Vol. 1...
The roof was supported within by six pillars, and the statue of Hubal was placed over a wall then existing withing the Ka'bah. This took place during the youth of Muhammad. Al-Azraqi, quoted by Burckhardt, says that the figure of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus was sculptured as ...