"Mohammed also removed the ambo, the iconostasis, the thrones, the altar, and all portable icons. Despite the Muslim prohibition on any representation of the human form, he did preserve many Christian figural mosaics, including the figures of the Virgin and Child in the apse. Moreover, he kept many of them free of the whitewash that was to conceal them as time went by. He erected a pulpit in place of the ambo and a mihrab, or prayer niche, in the curve of the sanctuary apse, tilting the axis of worship southeastward, in the direction of Mecca."
