Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Syriac sources—from Ramla and Antioch to Constantinople, Baghdad, and Cairo—describe comparable effects of the 1033/4 CE Palestine Quake(s) in Jerusalem: collapsed city walls, partial destruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and nearby convents and churches, fallen vaults and domes, shattered prayer niches, and loss of life, followed by aftershocks and major reconstruction efforts under Fatimid authority.

Baghdadi historian Ibn al-Jawzi produced architectural precision: “part of the city walls of Jerusalem collapsed, a large piece fell off the prayer niche (miḥrāb) of David [in Al-Aqsa Mosque], but the Mosque of the Rock was not damaged.” Two later writers preserved or reitereated al-Jawzi's account. Bar Hebraeus noted that “portions of the walls of the Temple in Jerusalem fell down,” and as-Suyūṭī, citing Ibn al-Jawzi as his source, echoed that the wall of Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) collapsed as did a part of the Miḥrāb of Dāwūd in Al-Aqsa Mosque.