MASJIDU ‘T-TAQWA مسجد التقوى
Lit. “The Mosque of Piety.” The mosque at Quba’, a place about three mites southeast of al-Madinah. It was here that it is said that the Prophet’s camel, al-Qaswa rested on its way from Makkah to al-Madinah, on the occasion of the Flight. And when Muhammad desired the Companions to mount the camel, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar did so, but she still remained on the ground; but when ‘Ali obeyed the order, she arose. Here the Prophet decided to erect a place for prayer. It was the first mosque erected in Islam. Muhammad laid the first brick, and with an iron javelin marked out the direction for prayer. The Prophet, during his residence at al-Madinah, used to visit it once a week on foot, and he always made a point of praying there the morning prayer on the 17th of Ramazan. A prayer in the mosque of Quba’ is said to be equal in merit to a Leaser Pilgrimage to Makkah and the place itself bears rank after the mosques al-Makkah and al-Madinah and before that of Jerusalem. It was originally a square building of very small size, but the Khalifah ‘Usman enlarged it Sultan ‘Abdu ‘l-Hamid rebuilt the place, but it has no pretensions to grandeur. (See Burton’s Pilgrimage, vol. i. p. 390.)

Based on Hughes, Dictionary of Islam