When Aldina Moshin, a devout and elderly Muslim from Tanzania, now living in Queens, N.Y., describes the Dome of the Rock, his voice becomes tender and a bit sad, as though he's remembering the tragic life of a dear friend.

Moshin has never visited the Dome, a holy Muslim shrine in Jerusalem, but has wanted to as long as he can remember. In his youth, he even tried to sneak into Israel for that purpose, knowing he had little hope of legally obtaining a visa from Tanzania, which does not diplomatically recognize Israel.

"We could not show that stamp in our passport. However there were people who managed to get by," said Moshin, whose forehead bears the leathery brown mark of a devout Muslim . "If I'd had direct permission from our [Tanzania] government, than I would have been able to travel to Jerusalem. But unfortunately, so far, I have not been blessed with that occasion."

Like many Muslims, Moshin believes attaining a place in heaven hinges, in part, on paying his respects at holy sites such as the Dome. As a place where the most revered Muslim prophet, Muhammad, is said to have visited, the Dome is the third holiest site in Islam. It is also one of the most difficult sacred places for Muslims to visit.

"We would love to go. We want to follow in the prophet's footsteps. We love to see his things," said Muhammad Ali Shah, one in a group of middle-aged men gathered around a coffee table in the lobby of the Al Khoei Islamic Center in Queens.

Many of the men nodded in agreement, and Khawar Ali Shah added, "Jerusalem is God's home, like the Ka'aba."

The Dome of the Rock, a golden-capped, octagonal shrine, tiled with blue mosaics, stands atop some of the ancient city's holiest ground, a place of great importance to Muslims, Jews and Christians. It is where the first and second Jewish temples stood and where, according to the Jewish faith, the third temple will be built in the Messianic age.

The scene surrounding the Dome and the Western Wall, which sits directly below and is a remnant of the second temple, exemplifies the clash between Judaism and Islam. The bleached and cobbled wall rises above a stream of devoted Jews who offer prayers of despair and jubilation at its base. Three times a day they pray for the rebuilding of the temple, a sign of the long awaited redemption.

The Dome above them is co-managed by a council of Muslims who oversees the site in agreement with the Israeli army whose soldiers stand guard with guns and metal detectors at the entrance points. Legally, Muslims can come and go freely from the holy site during prayer times and have the exclusive right to enter the Dome of the Rock shrine and the al-Aqsa Mosque, which stands opposite to it on what Jews call The Temple Mount.

For Muslims, the site took on its greatest meaning near the end of the seventh century once Muslim scholars determined that "the furthest mosque," mentioned in the Quran's Sura 17, was a reference to the al-Aqsa Mosque. They believe God took Muhammad on a night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and from there he ascended to heaven.

One long-time congregant at the Al Khoei Center, who did not want to be named, described Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem as one that transcended the constraints of space and time. "When God called him, the world stopped. So when the prophet returned to Mecca, the door that was open, finally it swung closed, and the bed was still warm."

For Shia Muslims like the aged Moshin and the men at the Al Khoei Center, a visit to hallowed ground is integral to their salvation. If a Muslim pays homage to the places prophets lived and died, he can later ask them on Judgment Day to help secure his position in heaven. Of the utmost importance is Mecca, where all Muslims are obligated to make the hadj once in their life; second is Medina; and third is the Dome of the Rock. Shia differ from the larger sect of Sunni Muslims in their devotion to the prophet's descendents.

"I go and ask on the Day of Judgment," Moshin said. "'You please remember me,' and then I leave it to their intercession to find me a place in heaven."

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For all the holiness and controversy surrounding the Dome of the Rock day-to-day life at the sacred site has its share of mundane realities. Israeli army men and women sit for hours by the site's many entrances with guns slung over one shoulder and cups of coffee in their hands.

At the Cotton Gate, just outside the shrine's northern end, is a Muslim-owned teashop where old and young men sit on low wicker stools and sip tiny cups of dark, spiced coffee or sweet mint tea while flicking their cigarette ash on the cobbled road or taking long draws of apple tobacco from a hookah pipe.

Alek, 26, a macho young man with a buzz cut and cigarette in one hand, brews them fresh pots of coffee from the shop, which is built into the ancient stone wall of an immense tunnel. Tourists and locals wander down the dimly-lit passageway, past trinket sellers, the coffee bar and food stands, toward a brilliant horseshoe of sunlight and steps that lead up to the Dome of the Rock.

It's an entrance that inspires a sense of the holy, except for guys like Alek, and the band of three teenage boys that he puts to work in the Dome's plaza every day. They're like the three stooges and he's the ring-leader, directing their sales of postcards to tourists visiting the grounds of the sacred site. Lounging on the plaza stairs, they joke and laugh with each other, waiting for the next herd of tourists to approach the holy shrine. When they do, the boys are quick on their feet, snapping open photo booklets of the Dome's interior that unfold like an accordion in front of the slightly dazed tourists.

Suhibe, 15, is the best salesman of the bunch and has a sweet, boyish face and easy smile. He also offers tourists slips of paper printed with passages of the Koran and asks for donations in return. Suhibe said he doesn't pray regularly but believes in Allah and that it's wrong to sell the Koran for a set price, although donations are a different matter.

Every morning for the past three months he said he has traveled regularly from his home in Al Jalzoon, a Palestinian refugee camp outside of Ramallah, to sell postcards at the Dome. He's willing to walk or hitchhike the 10 miles between Ramallah and Jerusalem, and wait at the slow board crossings, because there's no work in the territories, he said. When his father became ill three years ago, Suhibe said, he dropped out school and began working to support their 12-person family.

Underneath his tee-shirt, the young man wears two necklaces: one with a laminated pendant of Arafat's face and the other of a young, smiling man who he said is his dead brother.

Alek lets Suhibe sell postcards with them, but he's not allowed to hang around the coffee shop too much. If the Israeli police find out he's from the territories, Alek and the shop's owner could be fined 15,000 shekels for harboring him illegally.

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The Dome is a far cry from the image many Muslims living in New York have of it, but that does not rank among the varied reasons why many don't visit it despite their desire to.

For Khawar Ali Shah, who believes Jerusalem is God's home, the threat of violence in the area is reason enough for him not to go. "I wouldn't want to travel to a place where I might be blown up by a bomb or a tank because there was an attack of some sort."

In Jassim Alsudani's opinion, however, it is more important to take a stand against Israel's existence, and refuse to travel there, than it is to visit the Dome. This is the view held by many Arab Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria, who don't acknowledge Israel, making it illegal for their citizens to officially enter the country.

Others said they simply assumed it was impossible for them to go to Jerusalem due to the political tensions, and therefore never seriously looked into the matter. But according to the Israeli Consulate in New York City, their thinking is in error.

"There's absolutely no problem for Muslims to visit the Dome of the Rock, unless they are a specific security risk," said Dina Wosner, the consulate's senior public relations officer. "Barring that, there's no reason Muslims shouldn't come in."

But an official in the Israeli parliament, who refused to be named, called visiting the Dome of the Rock "mission impossible" for Muslims living outside of Jerusalem. Not only are many Muslims unable to enter Israel, but when it comes to Friday prayers and religious holidays men under 35 are unable to visit the Dome.

Despite the challenges, men like Moshin continue to search for ways to make their pilgrimage. "I hope one of these days, before I die, I will be able to visit and see the place and pay my homage to the mosque and the prophets," Moshin said.

After living in the U.S. for 12 years, Moshin is optimistic that he may receive his green card soon. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed that any time now I will receive a letter saying come get my U.S. passport and then 'voila' I can travel."