Mizrah - Praying toward ark of covenant?

[sloth]

Who came up with the practice of praying toward the temple? Was it God or Solomon?

 

[pianistclare]

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10893-mizrah

 

[Todd_Easton]

6 Then Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads. 7 And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, … (Joshua 7:6-7a)

I will worship toward thy holy temple in the fear of thee. (Psalm 5:7b)

I don’t recall a command from God to do it but Joshua and David (in Psalm 5) themselves seem to have prayed toward the ark of the covenant or the temple, i.e., the portable meeting tent that housed the ark from the time of Moses to the time of Solomon’s Temple, even before Solomon mentioned the practice in 1 Kings 8:22-53 in reference to the temple he built.

 

[po18guy]

The Temple, at least the first Temple, was considered to be the presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant. Much the same as our Tabernacle.