Too bad Suleiman the magnificent didn’t learn daf TB Baba Metzia 114.

The seven gates of Jerusalem’s old city has a history unto itself. After successive conquests, the walls of Jerusalem were in disrepair. To protect Jerusalem from a Crusaders invasion, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent commissioned the rebuilding of those walls. Legend has it that one night he had a nightmare warning him that he did not rebuild the walls of Jerusalem he would be torn to pieces by lions. The Lions’ gate stand as proof that he fulfilled the dream’s mission of rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem.

“The current walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were built between 1533 and 1540 on orders of Ottoman Sultan , who provided them with seven gates: six new gates were built, and the older and previously sealed Golden Gate was reopened (only to be re-sealed again after a few years). The seven gates at the time of Suleiman were, clockwise and by their current name: the Damascus Gate; Herod's Gate; Lions' Gate; Golden Gate; Dung Gate; Zion Gate; and Jaffa Gate.

“With the re-sealing of the Golden Gate by Suleiman, the number of operational gates was only brought back to seven in 1887, with the addition of the New Gate.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_of_the_Old_City_of_Jerusalem)

When the Israeli Defense Force was about to liberate the city of Jerusalem, the officers in charge could either enter through the Dung Gate or the Lions’ Gate. Even though tactically the Dung Gate was the better choice, they chose the Lions’ Gate as the more appropriate one to liberate the city of Jerusalem.

Why was the Golden Gate sealed and a Muslim cemetery built in front of it? To prevent the Messiah from walking, through that gate, he had it sealed and later a cemetery planted in front of. According to tradition Elijah was a kohen and everybody knows that a kohen is forbidden to enter a cemetery and become ritually unready.

The flaw in this plan is revealed on daf TB Baba Metzia 114b. The story is told that Rabba bar Avuh found Elijah standing in a graveyard of gentiles and asked him a series of questions. Finally “The amora proceeded to ask Elijah a different question and said to him: Is not the Master a priest? What is the reason that the Master is standing in a cemetery? Elijah said to him: Has the Master not studied the mishnaic order of Teharot? As it is taught in a baraita: Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says that the graves of gentiles do not render one impure….” (Sefaria.org translation)

The sealed-up gate might delay the Messiah from entering Jerusalem, but not the Muslim cemetery.