The Prophet said to them, "The sign of his kingship is that the Ark will come to you, containing serenity from your Lord and certain relics left by the families of Musa and Harun. It will be borne by angels. There is a sign for you in that if you believe. (Qur’an, 2: 248)

'The Ark According to Historical Sources'

Considerable information about the Ark of the Covenant is to be found in historical sources. It is thought to have been manufactured on the slopes of Mount Sinai after the Children of Israel left Egypt, and contains stone slabs from the Prophet Moses and other items from the Prophet Harun.

According to historical sources, the Ark of the Covenant was carried to Jerusalem when the city was declared to be the capital of the United Jewish Kingdom in the time of the Prophet David, after that of the Prophet Aaron. It was placed in the Temple built by the Prophet Solomon, where it remained until 587 BC. In that year Jerusalem was captured by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the monarch who constructed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Later on, the belief began to spread that the Ark, which was not seen for the next 500 years by anyone, had not been destroyed but had been buried in a secret location under the Temple by the Levites responsible for its safekeeping. After the destruction of the Temple by the Roman Governor Titus in 70 AD, it was assumed that the secret chamber had been found and that the Ark and the other holy artifacts from the Temple had been carried to Rome.

'The Search for the Vanished Ark'

The Ark has remained lost since 587 BC up to the present day. In addition, since the Jews believed that the Ark would only reappear after the coming of the Messiah, those who have looked for it down the years have generally been Christians, not Jews. The first recorded 'Ark Excavations' on the Temple Mount were carried out by the 'Knights Templar' in the 12th century. No sign of the Ark was found then or more recently, and the subject has become a focus of interest for researchers in modern times.

'The Ark in the Old Testament'

Our Almighty Lord, Who created everything with sublime knowledge and wisdom, has revealed the existence of the Ark in both the Quran and the Old Testament. It is revealed in the Old Testament that one of the stone tablets was given to the Prophet Moses on Mount Sinai and that these tablets were placed into the Ark on Mount Horeb:

When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. (Exodus 31: 18)

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. (2 Chronicles 5: 10)

The Torah also states that the Ark was later carried away by the Prophet David and installed else where by the Prophet Solomon:

David again brought together out of Israel chosen men, thirty thousand in all. He and all his men set out from Baalah of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark. They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. (2 Samuel 6: 1-4)

Opinions regarding the Journey and Location of the Ark of the Covenant:

The city of Jerusalem is known for being the home of the Temple erected by the Prophet Solomon and for the Ark of the Covenant. The most widely accepted view is that the sacred treasures were carried to Rome when the Temple was torn down in 70 AD. Another opinion, however, is that the Ark, which has been lost since 587 BC, was hidden in Jerusalem and that it was taken further north, in other words to Tiberias (Tabariya), or to Antioch (Hatay) or Mecca, in order to prevent it being destroyed by the Romans or other peoples, since Jerusalem was regarded as unsafe. (Our Almighty Lord knows best.)

The place described as near Lake Tiberias in the hadiths is regarded as a figure of speech by Islamic scholars. Tiberias is near to Sham, and Sham, in accounts of the end times in the hadiths, means somewhere far-distant, far from Mecca and Medina. This figure of speech applies to Tiberias. Indeed, some commentators and researchers have taken this to indicate that the Ark may be in Jerusalem, Mecca, Tiberias, Antioch, or even in Istanbul.