Like a beacon pointing to the Heavens

Roof details of the Sultan Mosque - like candles lit and pointing towards heaven.

These details echo the minaret of the mosque. The earliest mosques were built without minarets, the call to prayer was performed elsewhere; hadiths relay that the Muslim community of Medina gave the call to prayer from the roof of the house of Muhammad, which doubled as a place for prayer. Around 80 years after Muhammad's death the first known minarets appeared.

Minarets have been described as the "gate from heaven and earth", and as the Arabic language letter alif (which is a straight vertical line).