Van Berchems arrangement contradicts the normal sequence of Islamic foundation inscriptions, in which the foundation notice occurs at the end.
In fact, this mosaic text should be recognized as comprising two distinct inscriptions. As Christel Kessler has transcribed them, it is clear that the band on the inner face of the arcade contains the main message. The outer inscription is experienced first by those entering the building, who may read only the proximate segment, but the main text, on the inner face of the arcade, was meant to be read in its entirety by those who were returning as they had entered, which involved circumambulation of the middle ambulatory.
It begins on the south side of the octagon with part of the shahadah, the declaration of faith, in the same form in which it appears on the reform coinage of ‘Abd al-Malik introduced five years later, and is followed by a series of excerpts from different parts of the Quran as it is now constituted: