The Kaaba is the House that Abraham and his son Ismail built at Mecca 1. When Abraham brought Hajar and her child to the Hijaz, its site was a rise in the ground like a hillock, with the floods passing to its right and left 2. Ismail kept the House all his life, then some of his sons; its custody then passed to Jurhum for about twenty centuries, to Khuza'a for three hundred years, and to Qusayy and Quraysh from about 440 CE 3 4 5 6. Keeping the Kaaba was one of Qusayy's offices, and later went to the Banu Abd al-Dar 7.
Al-Mubarakpuri, in The Sealed Nectar, says that Abraha wanted to divert the Arabs' pilgrimage from the House to his church, and to demolish it 8. Since Ismail's time the Kaaba had been rough stonework rising above a man's height, nine cubits high and roofless 9 10. Five years before the mission a flood swept Mecca and left the Kaaba close to collapse, so Quraysh rebuilt it thirty-five years after the Prophet ﷺ's birth 9 10. Their lawful funds ran short, so they left out about six cubits on the northern side, the Hijr, raised the door above the ground, and roofed it on six pillars when the building reached fifteen cubits 11 12. The idolaters filled the Sacred Mosque with idols; when the Prophet took Mecca he found three hundred and sixty around the House, and ordered them taken out of the mosque and burned 13 14.
This narrative was written with AI help from the sources it cites, and has not yet been read by a human editor.