On a certain night in the late Umayyad period, a scribe named Ibn Habib recorded something unusual in his Kitab al-Manik: a list of 28 Arabic star groups, each tied to a letter of the alphabet, each governing a night of the lunar month. He was not writing astronomy. He was writing what the Bedouin knew before the Qur’an was revealed. The moon’s path through the fixed stars had been divided into twenty-eight manazil (stations) for centuries. What he could not have known was that one of those stations would eventually carry the name of a creature that could cross the sky in a single breath.
Al Buraq is the winged steed that carried the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and then through the seven heavens in the Night Journey (Isra’ wa-Mi’raj). In the lunar mansion system, the name Buraq attaches to one specific station of the moon. That station is the third of the twenty-eight manazil, and its Arabic name is Al-Thurayya (the Pleiades), though some sources call the neighboring station Al-Buraq directly. The connection between the two is neither accidental nor trivial: the station marks a point where earth and sky opened to each other, where night travel became something more than navigation.
The 28 Stations of the Moon: Where Al Buraq Sits
The lunar mansion system divides the moon’s monthly orbit into 28 segments, each roughly 13 degrees wide. The moon spends one night in each station. The names come from the pre-Islamic Arab calendar, overlaid later with Islamic angelology and astrological correspondences. The stations are not equal in importance, but they are fixed in the sky. Al Buraq’s station falls at roughly 22 degrees of Taurus, where the Pleiades cluster rises.
The Bedouin knew these stations because the moon’s position told them when to plant, when to travel, and when to expect rain. The stations also governed the anwa (weather omens) that marked transitions between seasons. Al Buraq’s station was considered auspicious for travel. A moon in this station meant the night was safe for long journeys. That is the literal layer. The mystical layer folded the travel omen into the story of the Night Journey itself.
The Names Carry the Meaning
The full list of the 28 manazil survives in multiple medieval sources, including the Ghayat al-Hakim (the Picatrix) and the works of the 10th-century astronomer al-Sufi. The stations are:
- Al-Sharatayn (the two signs)
- Al-Butayn (the little belly)
- Al-Thurayya (the Pleiades, also called Al-Buraq)
- Al-Dabaran (the follower)
- Al-Haq’ah (the white spot)
- Al-Han’ah (the brand)
- Al-Dhira’ (the forearm)
- Al-Nathrah (the gap)
- Al-Tarf (the glance)
- Al-Jabhah (the forehead)
- Al-Zubrah (the mane)
- Al-Sarfah (the turner)
- Al-Awwa’ (the howler)
- Al-Simak (the elevated one)
- Al-Ghafr (the cover)
- Al-Zubana (the claws)
- Al-Iklil (the crown)
- Al-Qalb (the heart)
- Al-Shawlah (the raised tail)
- Al-Na’am (the ostriches)
- Al-Baldah (the empty)
- Al-Saud (the lucky ones)
- Al-Dhira’ (the forearm, second)
- Al-Ghamid (the fat tail)
- Al-Muqaddam (the front)
- Al-Mu’akhkhar (the rear)
- Al-Muwassal (the connected)
- Al-Batn al-Hut (the fish’s belly)
Al-Thurayya occupies the third station, and it holds the name Buraq as a secondary title. The connection is visual: the Pleiades cluster looks like a horse’s mane rising from the horizon, and the tradition of naming stars after riding beasts was common across Semitic astronomy. The North Arabians called the constellation “the horse,” and the South Arabians saw it as a camel. Al Buraq, the rider’s mount, fits that pattern.
How the Night Journey Maps Onto the Lunar Stations
The Isra’ (night journey) and Mi’raj (ascension) are described in Surah al-Isra (17:1) and expanded in the Hadith literature. The Prophet traveled on Al Buraq, a creature described as white, between a mule and a donkey in size, with wings on its thighs. Each stride carried it as far as the eye could see. The journey began at the Kaaba, stopped at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and then ascended through the seven heavens.
The lunar station system maps onto this journey in a specific way. The moon’s path through the 28 stations mirrors the Prophet’s path through the 28 levels of the celestial spheres. Both systems count twenty-eight because that is the number of nights in a complete lunar cycle and the number of letters in the Arabic alphabet. Al-Thurayya (Al Buraq’s station) sits at the point where the moon rises in spring, which is the season of the Night Journey in the traditional Islamic calendar.
The 9th Century Astrological Synthesis
The earliest surviving text that explicitly links Al Buraq to the lunar mansions is the Kitab al-Mawalid (Book of Nativities) by the 9th-century Persian astrologer Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi. He wrote that the third mansion, Al-Thurayya, governs pregnancy, agriculture, and travel by night. The astrologer assigned the mansion to the angel Gabriel, who also appeared as the guide of the Night Journey. Abu Ma’shar’s synthesis of Indian, Persian, and Greek astrology with Islamic cosmology made the lunar mansions a standard tool in medieval divination.
By the 11th century, the Ghayat al-Hakim assigned each mansion a talismanic image. For Al-Thurayya, the Picatrix gives the image of “a man mounting a horse, with a spear in his hand.” That man is not the Prophet directly, but the echo is unmistakable. The rider on the horse at the third station recalls Al Buraq’s rider. The astrological writer Ibn al-Hatim (13th century) made the connection explicit in his Kitab al-Matali’, writing that the third mansion “is the station of the messenger’s mount, and its affairs are journeys and dispatches.”
The Practical Use of Al Buraq’s Station
For the practitioner working with the lunar mansions, Al Buraq’s station has specific applications. The moon enters Al-Thurayya (Al Buraq’s station) annually from about May 20 to June 2, depending on the year. During these nights, the moon sits in Taurus, and the Pleiades rise with the sun. This is the window for working with the station’s energies.
Timing and Ritual Use
The traditional correspondences for Al-Thurayya include:
- Element: Water
- Direction: East
- Governing angel: Gabriel (Jibril)
- Talismanic metals: Silver and bronze
- Associated letters: Dal (د) and Thal (ذ)
- Beneficial acts: Travel initiation, planting seeds, business partnerships, writing contracts
- Acts to avoid: Surgery, starting building projects, cutting hair
The station is considered “cold and moist” in the medieval humoral system, meaning it favors slow, steady growth over rapid change. That fits Al Buraq’s nature: the creature does not tire or rush. It covers vast distances with controlled, rhythmic strides.
The Talisman of the Rider
Several late medieval grimoires, including the Shams al-Ma’arif (13th century), preserve a talisman for the third station. The practitioner inscribes the image of a rider on horse with a spear (the Picatrix image) onto silver foil during the hour of the moon in Al-Thurayya. The talisman is wrapped in white silk and carried for safe travel. The prayer recited is the same one the Prophet is said to have spoken on Al Buraq: “Glory to Him who carried His servant by night” (Surah 17:1).
This is not a common modern practice. Most contemporary astrological magic works with fixed stars rather than the lunar mansions. But the talisman tradition survived in North African folk magic through the 19th century, where it was called hijab al-Buraq (the veil of Buraq). Moroccan manuscripts from the 1700s describe it as a protection for merchants traveling the trans-Saharan trade routes.
The most common error is assuming Al Buraq is a mansion name in its own right. It is not. The official name of the third mansion is Al-Thurayya. Al-Buraq is a title applied to this mansion because of the Pleiades’ resemblance to a horse’s mane and the station’s association with the Night Journey. Some modern sources, particularly in online esoteric forums, treat Al-Buraq as a separate 29th mansion or a secret hidden station. That has no textual support.
Another misconception: that the lunar mansions are exclusively Islamic. They predate Islam by centuries. The Nabataeans used a 28-mansion system. The pre-Islamic Arabs called the stations manazil al-qamar and tied them to their rain-prayer rituals (istisqa). The Islamic tradition absorbed and transformed the system, but did not invent it.
A third error is reading the Night Journey as a literal mapping onto the mansions. The Prophet did not travel through the 28 stations in sequence. The stations represent the phases of the moon, not the levels of heaven. The parallel is symbolic and numerological, not astronomical. The number 28 connects the lunar cycle to the letters of the Arabic alphabet. Al Buraq connects the moon’s journey to the soul’s journey.
FAQ
Is Al Buraq a lunar mansion? No, Al Buraq is a title given to the third lunar mansion Al-Thurayya (the Pleiades), because the cluster’s shape resembles a horse’s mane and the station is associated with the Night Journey.
What is the significance of the 28 lunar mansions? The 28 mansions track the moon’s nightly position through the fixed stars, used for navigation, agriculture, weather prediction, and astrological magic across pre-Islamic, Islamic, and medieval European traditions.
Did the Prophet actually ride Al Buraq through the mansions? No, the Night Journey passed through the seven heavens, not the lunar stations. The connection between Al Buraq and the third mansion is symbolic and astrological, not a literal route.
How do I use Al Buraq’s station in practice? Work with the station when the moon sits in Taurus (approximately May 20 to June 2). Use it for travel protection, planting, and contract signing. Avoid beginning building or surgery during this station.
Al Buraq’s station sits at the point where the Pleiades rise against the ecliptic, where the moon appears to hang in the mane of the constellation. The Bedouin read that station as a signal that the night was safe for travel. The mystics read it as the station where the earth opened into heaven. Both readings come from the same observation: something moves through the darkness with a rhythm we can follow. The moon follows the 28 stations. The soul follows the Night Journey. Both are carried by the same creature, the same stride, the same night.
The lunar mansion system is not a curiosity of medieval astrology. It is a survival of how our ancestors measured time before clocks, before compasses, before maps. Al Buraq reminds us that the moon’s path is also a path of the soul. To learn the 28 stations is to learn the names of the nights. To know which station holds the rider is to know which night opens the sky.
For more on the complete lunar mansion system, see our guide to the 28 stations. For the symbols and correspondences of each mansion, visit the lunar mansions glossary. And for the Night Journey’s place in esoteric cosmology, read Al Buraq in Islamic mysticism.