The caliph al-Mansur founded the cemetery in 762 as part of the Round City of Baghdad, and the infobox gives 762 as the completion date. The current building comes from the Safavid restoration by Shah Ismail I from 1502 to 1524. Suleiman the Magnificent added ornamentation after taking Baghdad in 1534. The article names no architect.
The outer enclosure is 459 by 443 feet (140 by 135 m) around a courtyard and the main mosque. Two main domes of equal size cover the shrine rooms, though the infobox says three. Four large gold-coated minarets rise 115 feet (35 m) above an 82-foot (25 m) ceiling in the body, and 197 feet (60 m) in the infobox.
The body says the domes use 9,000 gold bricks. It dates one dome's gilding to 2004 in one passage and March 2008 in another. Critics say over 130 heritage sites were demolished to expand the forecourts.
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