The present-day dome of Masjid al-Aqsa (قبة المسجد الأقصى) was built by az-Zahir and consists of wood plated with lead enamelwork. Nothing remains of the original dome built by Abd al-Malik.
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In 1969, the dome was reconstructed in concrete and covered with anodized aluminum, instead of the original ribbed lead enamel work sheeting. In 1983, the aluminum outer covering was replaced with lead to match the original design by az-Zahir. The program of this extensive conservation began with the damaged dome and its paintings.
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The interior of the dome is painted with 14th-century-era decorations. Beneath the dome is the Al-Qibli Chapel (Arabic: المصلى القبلي al-Musalla al-Qibli); also known as al-Jami' al-Qibli (الجامع القِبْلي), a Muslim prayer hall, located in the southern part of the mosque. al-Aqsa's dome is one of the few domes to be built in front of the mihrab during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods, the others being the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (715) and the Great Mosque of Sousse (850).
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A great portion of the mosque is covered with whitewash, but the drum of the dome and the walls immediately beneath it are decorated with mosaics and marble. The 14th-century painted decorations of the dome interior, thought to be irreparably lost, were brought to light and completely reconstructed using the trateggio technique, a method that uses fine vertical lines to distinguish reconstructed areas from original ones.
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