“Al-Aqsa” has more than one established use. It may mean the southern mosque building, or the entire sacred precinct that includes the mosque, the Dome of the Rock, courtyards, and other structures. The wider precinct is formally known in Arabic as al-Haram al-Sharif, “the Noble Sanctuary.” Encyclopaedia Britannica states that Al-Aqsa Mosque is often extended to mean the entire plaza, while also describing the separate mosque building.
Why the same name can mean two things
In ordinary speech, people often use the name of a principal sanctuary for the whole site. Muslim religious usage also treats al-Masjid al-Aqsa as the sacred destination in Jerusalem associated with the Quran’s account of the Night Journey. Therefore, context matters: a reference to prayer inside the southern building is specific; a reference to the compound’s religious status may use “Al-Aqsa” for the whole precinct. “Dome of the Rock” always identifies the separate central shrine.
Use of the wider meaning is not a recent invention. Britannica describes the extension of the name to the plaza as common usage. The difference between the building and precinct is useful for clear reporting, but it does not prove a coordinated political renaming at a particular date.
What the 1925 guide says
The Supreme Muslim Council published A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem in 1925. The National Library of Israel catalogs the guide as a publication of the Council. Its “Historical Sketch” describes al-Haram al-Sharif as the whole sacred enclosure and discusses the sanctuary’s buildings. The guide includes the sentence: “Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.” This is a direct statement in a period guidebook, whose wording can be read in the surviving document; it records the Council’s description in 1925.
The guide is valuable evidence for how its authors presented the site’s history at that time. It does not independently establish archaeological details such as the precise layout of the ancient Temple. For that history and the archaeological record, see the evidence for the Jewish Temples. For the Umayyad buildings, see their construction history.