The tradition which affirms that a mosque was built on this site during the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 717–18 by the Umayyad prince and general Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik is a later, Ottoman-era legend. The Ottoman chroniclers describe the spot as the burial place of Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, hence the alleged tomb and mosque, but they confused the second Arab siege with the first Arab siege a generation before, and placed the construction of the mosque to around 686.