The ummayad caliphate forced the local architects and builders to construct the dome of the rock - it is actually modelled after a church which has now been destroyed but you can still see the ruins, 15 minutes away, a church which is called the seat of Mary. The octogon church was built around a rock that is believed that the Virgin sat on I think while she was pregnant with our Lord. Anyway, long story short - the sacred geometry of the dome of the rock is actually a church which surrounds the "axis mundi" rock. One could argue that the dome of tje rock represents the blessed virgin and the rock within represents the axis mundi, Christ incarnate in her womb.

Tom Holland's forced anachronistic comparison between October 7th and the Bar Cochva revolt is so below the standards of respectable historians and unfortunately reveals an ugly side of his mind.
Pity. Simon just let it go, and in fact did something similar in another interview I recently listed to. History apparently does not go well with wanting to sell books.