, and the niche in the bottom middle is the
mihrab.
Exterior Outer walls and façades The exterior of the mosque is imposing, with high walls crowned along the top by
merlons above a row of
corbels. Along the walls are large pointed
horseshoe arches, many of which are now walled-in, while some frame the gates of the mosque. Some of the arches on the southwestern side of the mosque accommodate space for shops.
The minaret The
minaret, like the more famous
Kutubiyya minaret and other minarets in the
Maghreb, has a square base ( per side) and is divided vertically into two parts: a main body and a much smaller lantern (almost per side) at the top. The main part of the minaret has plain walls made of
rubble stone up to the level of the mosque's roof, at which point the rest of the minaret is made of brick and the decoration begins. From here, on each of the almost identical four sides, three narrow
horseshoe arches are topped by larger
polylobed arches ("polylobed" meaning that it is made up of multiple smaller half-circles). In between these arches are thin
engaged columns that were once all covered in coloured
faience (ceramic), which remains on some of them. inscription band on
cuerda seca tiles which originally decorated the top of the minaret (now on display at the
Badi Palace Museum) Towards the top, a large
frieze of green and white geometric mosaic
tiles wraps around the minaret, before finishing in a crown of
merlons. Between this mosaic tile frieze and the merlons there is currently an empty horizontal band which used to be filled by an Arabic inscription in
cuerda seca tiles, with dark (maybe purple) lettering over a white background. Above this main part of the minaret, the short lantern or secondary shaft on top makes use of similar decoration. It is surmounted by a
finial (
jamur) with three
copper spheres. A once widely reported belief alleged that they were actually made of pure gold; a legend which originated with this mosque but which latter became associated with the Koutoubia minaret.
Interior Courtyards The mosque is roughly square in plan. Nonetheless, the mosque still shares many similarities to other Almohad or medieval mosques in the region, as its construction was more or less contemporary with the
Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, the
Hassan Tower in
Rabat, and the Almohad Mosque of
Seville (replaced by a
cathedral but preserving elements like its
minaret, the
Giralda). For example, even though the proportions of the prayer hall are much reduced, the central aisle that leads from the courtyard to the
mihrab in the qibla wall and the aisle that runs along the qibla wall are emphasized architecturally in their width and decoration, a standard feature of classic Moroccan and Andalusian mosques sometimes referred to as a "T-plan" or "T-type" (because the two aisles together form a "T" shape on the floor plan). The minbar is smaller than its famous predecessor (measuring high, long, and wide) but also displays remarkable artistic quality. The main decorative pattern along its major surfaces on either side is centered around eight-pointed stars, from which bands of decorated with ivory and bone inlay then interweave and repeat the same pattern across the rest of the surface. The spaces between these bands form other geometric shapes which are filled with wood panels of intricately carved
arabesques. == Qibla orientation of the mosque ==