He established professorships in the four madhhabs, or rites, in Prophetic traditions and in Quranic readings, endowing them with considerable wealth, though the famine of 1403-1404 AD largely reduced the school's holdings. The mosque itself originally housed 20 sufis. Some of their cells remain preserved behind the northern walls of the mosque. Later, when the Khanqah was across the street was finished, the sufis, together with their first headmaster, moved into the new complex. 

The mosque and madrasa date to about 1349 AD, and according to al-Maqrizi, the historian, was one of the mosque outstanding and beautiful in Egypt.  It is located on the northern side of Saliba Street ("Cross Street"), which runs from below the Citadel to the mosques of Ibn Tulun and Sayyida Zaynab. The minaret, which stands above the portal's vestibule, employs prismatic triangles for the transition from the square base to the octagonal shaft. The entrance to the mosque leads first into a vestibule where three of the walls have embedded pieces of polished black glass. The original purpose of this glass may very well have simply been decorative, but others have suggested that it was meant to protect the establishment against jinns, or evil spirits, or possibly used as curing panels which anybody with an ailment seeking relief could touch or lean against. Just after entering the vestibule, to the right is a locked door leading to a tomb that was perhaps originally intended for the founder. However, after the khanqah was built, he chose to be interred there instead. 

This mosque combines hypostyle features with a cruciform plan. It is built in the style of a small congregational facility. After the vestibule there is a courtyard where to the left, a small mashrabiyya enclosure extends out from the wall. Dating to the mid-eighteenth century,  this was meant to contain water jars. On the qibla side of the rectangular courtyard is an arcaded sanctuary, which is faced by another arcaded hall across the courtyard. The two lateral sides of the courtyard are each occupied by a recess that opens onto the courtyard through a double arch sustained by one column only. 

Like many of the mosques in Cairo, the building is not naturally oriented towards Mecca. Hence, inside the qibla wall (the wall oriented to Mecca) of the sanctuary is bent in a diagonal away from the street. Here, an interesting architectural element is also the stone minbar, which are normally made of wood. This is one of the very few ancient stone minbars that still exists in Cairo. Along its sides are geometric decorations that have largely eroded away. There is also a carved stone dikka (a device to hold the Quran) dating to 1555-56, which is very beautiful. It consists of a rectangular platform mounted on eight columsn and today it continues to be used for Quran readings and lecturing during festive occasions. The mihrab (pulpit) has traditional alternating courses of red, white and blue stone, and its marble paneling belongs to the type favored in the mid-fourteenth century. However, in the lowest reg9ister there is glazed tile that seems to have been  imported from Tunisia or Spain and embedded at a later date.

Indeed, this is a most beautiful mosque of a most interesting period of Egyptian history, the Mameluke dynasties when slaves became the rulers of Egypt.

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